


The Windriders come back

by GAlvin43v3r



Series: The Windriders come back [1]
Category: Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Alternate Universe - Circus, Angst, Anxiety Attacks, Consensual Underage Sex, Deepthroating, Fingerfucking, First Kiss, First Time, Fluff and Smut, Happy Ending, Love Confessions, Multi, Nightmares, Oral Sex, Past Character Death, Past Relationship(s), Romance, Sex Talk, Teasing, sad childhoods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-10
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-05-19 13:02:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 173,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5968237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GAlvin43v3r/pseuds/GAlvin43v3r
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five years have passed since a tragic incident caused the Windriders circus to disband. In the present, Dezel struggles with Rose and Lailah to keep the circus alive. </p><p>However, everything changes when Sorey and Mikleo, newbies but hard-working performers, decide to join them together with two ex-members of the Windriders that have decided to come back, forcing Dezel to recall things that he had been trying to forget. </p><p>Like his previous relationship with a certain rude but charming long-haired man.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Familiar faces

**Author's Note:**

> Weeeell, and here I am! Starting a new fanfiction even when I still have another two ongoing ^^U But to the ones who might be reading the others don’t worry: I don’t plan to abandon them :)
> 
> Once said that, first of all I want to say thanks to the ones who supported the idea of doing this fanfic :) This story is situated in the same world than the Tales of Zestiria (ToZ) game, meaning that the cities and monsters that will appear are going to be the same as the ones that appear in the game. However, in this circus!AU seraphs don’t exist and the same goes for the Shepherds, meaning that all the characters of the game are mere humans and consequently don’t have any kind of power.
> 
> The story is also situated at the same time as the game (although there will be flashbacks at some point) so Sorey is 17 and Mikleo is 18. I’ve checked the ToZ wikia and it isn’t mentioned the how old the rest of the characters are, so in this fanfiction I consider that Rose is 20, Dezel is 22, Edna is 23, and Lailah and Zaveid are 28.
> 
> Finally, as I’ve indicated in the tags, this fanfiction is going to be eventually M rated, but until that happens some chapters will have to pass, so to the ones who are expecting to have some smut involving Zaveid and Dezel, please, be a little patient :)  
> And that’s all :) I hope you enjoy the first chapter ^^

“Welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen!! Once again, the Windriders are going to perform!!”

“Tsk, why the hell does she speak as if there were a bunch of people watching us?”

“Dezel-san, please, don’t speak so loud! The audience could hear you!”

“Lailah, there are barely ten people here and half of them have just come because it’s cold outside. They aren’t even interested in what we’re doing”

Lailah exhaled a sigh before looking at Dezel. They both were at the backstage of the big top waiting that Rose announced them to do their respective performances.

“Dezel-san, that attitude isn’t going to help. You should always do your best and…”

At that moment Rose announced Dezel so Lailah couldn’t end the sentence, thing that he thanked because he was tired of hearing her repeat that almost every time that they performed.

“Okay…”, he said with apathy, “let’s do this useless show once more”

He could hear Lailah exhaling a sad sigh but he pretended not to realize it while walking lazily towards the stage, and although he couldn’t see the expressions of the people who had come to the circus there were some things that he could clearly hear: the bored sighs of some children who were sitting in the third line, the non-stop gossip of some women who weren’t even looking at the stage, and even the snoring of a drunk man who was sleeping while occupying more than one empty site.

Dezel clenches his fists around the pendulums that he had to use in his show. Damn, how the hell could he do his best when _no one_ was paying attention?

“Dezel!”, Rose was whispering his name from the backstage where she had just situated after announcing him, “come on, you have to start!”

Dezel exhaled a deep sigh, and he was about to do as Rose had just said but at that moment one of the women began to laugh with a loud and irritant voice about something that had nothing to do with his show.

And that was the final straw, so without even thinking Dezel grabbed his pendulum with force and with an incredibly fluid and rapid movement he threw it towards the place where he had heard the woman.

Of course, he threw it in a way that the pendulum just passed next to her without hurting her, but that was enough to make the woman began to cry with fear, the sudden noise causing the rest of the audience to finally focus on the stage. Even one of the kids who had been watching Rose’s presentation with annoyance exclaimed an impressed ‘How cool!’ when he saw Dezel’s movement. 

“Ladies and Gentlemen…”, Dezel said with sarcasm while making an exaggerated reverence, “thank you for your extremely kind attention. Hope you enjoy the show”

And after saying that, Dezel began his performance, knowing that when the show was over certain person was going to have some things to say to him.

* * *

“DEZEL!”

The named one exhaled a resigned sigh while turning around. He had tried to sneak inside his caravan inadvertently but, as he had feared, Rose had been faster, catching him midway.

“Yes, Rose?”, he said trying to adopt a calm tone that ended sounding more annoyed that he would have liked, causing the girl to get even angrier if possible.

“What the hell were you thinking?!”, Rose exclaimed while grabbing him by the front of his black jacket, “damn, Dezel, if you had failed you could have hurt that woman really badly!”

“Tsk, please, have a little confidence in my skills”, Dezel said slapping Rose’s hands away, “there was no risk of hurting her”

Rose rubbed her eyes before speaking with a reproachful tone.

“Even if there wasn’t any risk, because of what you’ve done we’ve probably lost all the audience that has come to watch us today”

Dezel snorted.

“You’re right: to lose an audience who gives a shit about what we do is something terrible…”

“For goodness sake, can’t you keep a proper conversation without being sarcastic?!”, Rose exclaimed with frustration.

“Yes, I could if the conversation was worth it”, he snapped back with the clear intention of keeping walking but he found himself unable to do so because Lailah had just arrived as well and was blocking his way to his caravan, “step aside”

“Dezel-san…”, she said, and damn, the disappointment in her voice was even worse that Rose’s anger, “please, you really have to change that attitude”

“Look, Dezel…”, Rose said, and now her tone didn’t sound angry anymore, just sad, “I know how you feel. Really. And believe me when I say that I would also like that things were as they used to be before but we can’t change what happened. Now our only chance to keep the circus alive is not to give up. Getting all depressed is not going to help: all the three of us have to work on this. Together”

“Yes, Rose-san is right”, Lailah said, “and we don’t have to forget what we were taught: _we always have to do our best while performing, without caring about being watched by one person or by thousandths_ ”

Dezel let out a deep breath before exhaling an empty laugh. Damn, there was no way that he could forget that motto after all the times that Lafarga said it to them. But considering the situation the Windriders were in, those words that had always cheered him up now were just causing him frustration.

“We’ve been ‘doing our best’ during five whole years”, Dezel finally said with a dark tone, “and our results couldn’t be worse, so sorry if I fail to see the point in ‘doing my best’ every fucking time that we have to perform in front of people who couldn’t care less about what we do” 

After saying that Dezel finally managed to pass Lailah, and although he could hear Rose calling his name he purposely ignored it before entering his caravan with a slam.

“Leave him alone for now”, Lailah said with a soft tone when seeing that Rose had the intention of following him inside, “I’m sure that Dezel-san knows that he is mistaken. He just needs some time”

Rose was about to protest but at the end she nodded, although her face was showing a worried expression.

“Okay”, she said with a whisper, before drying her eyes rudely when feeling some rebellious tears about to appear of them, “but damn, he is too selfish: he is not the only one who miss them!”

“No, he is not”, Lailah agrees, “but remember how close he was with Lafarga. And well…also with _him_. Of course it was hard for us to lose them… but for Dezel-san it was even worse”

Rose exhaled a deep sigh before nodding again.

“You’re right as always, Lailah”, she said with a tiny smile, “I’ll talk with Dezel later to fix things. If there’s something that I don’t want is to lose anyone else because of a stupid fight”

Lailah smiled reassuringly.

“I’m sure he doesn’t want that either. Come on: let’s go to get the big top ready for the next show”

Rose finally laughed when hearing Lailah’s enthusiastic tone.

“Yeah, let’s go!”

* * *

An hour later Dezel was still locked up in his caravan, lying on his bed with his arms crossed over his chest.

He clicked his tongue with annoyance when a wave of guiltiness assaulted him because deep inside he knew that he had just acted like a jerk with Rose and Lailah, but sometimes he couldn’t stand the women’s untiring optimism.

Dezel exhaled a sigh. Five years. Five long years had passed since that incident happened, and during all that time the Windriders hadn’t been able to prosper.

Yes, it was true that Rose, Lailah and he had managed to keep the circus afloat until then even when they were just three people, but still it wasn’t enough. The benefits that they obtained were lacking, to the point that some months they had barely enough to eat, and the only way to attract some visitants was to sell the tickets at embarrassingly low prices. After all, most part of the people preferred to go to see the great and famous ‘Circus of the Calamity’ that Lord Hedalf had managed to open thanks to Symonne’s assistance.

Dezel could feel his blood boiling from anger just for the memory of that horrible woman.

Damn. If it hadn’t been for her, the Windriders wouldn’t have been reduced to the pathetic circus that it was right then.

And Lafarga would still be alive.

And probably, _he_ wouldn’t have abandoned them.

Dezel hit the wall next to him while growling with frustration. What the hell was his problem? He had decided that he would take revenge, that he would destroy Hedalf and his spectacularly famous circus, and in order to do that he had to make sure to recover the glory and fame that the Windriders used to have. After all, that had been the last promise that he had made to Lafarga, and consequently he had to be focused on that instead of losing time thinking about useless things.

And definitely, he couldn’t lose time thinking about _him_.

After spending some more moments lying on his bed Dezel finally stood up with renewed determination. Although he hated to admit it Rose was right: protesting and getting all depressed wasn’t going to fix anything. They had to find a way to make the Windriders prosper. And although Lailah had been right when suggesting in several occasions to hire more people it wasn’t that easy. After all, who was going to want to work in a circus in decadency…?

“Dezel-san!”

Dezel jumped in surprise when the door of his caravan opened suddenly and Lailah entered without bothering to knock.

“What happens?”, Dezel asked with worry, knowing that it had to be something important because, unlike Rose, Lailah always respected his privacy so there was no way that she assaulted him like that without good reason.

“Good news!”, she exclaimed, her tone excited, “two boys had just asked to let them join us!”

If Dezel wasn’t blind, he would have opened his eyes at his maximum with astonishment.

“What? Is it some kind of joke?”

“No, it isn’t!”, Lailah said while grabbing Dezel’s arm with both of her hands to drag him out of his caravan, “come on, they are waiting for us at the big top”

Without leaving him time to reply Lailah began to describe the boys.

According to Lailah, one of the boys, Sorey, was extremely cheerful, the kind of boy that would immediately get along with Rose. He had specialized in the art of the sword and was able to train certain animals, but he was also willing to learn everything that could be needed to work in the circus.

The other boy, Mikleo, was less cheerful than Sorey and seemed to be more disciplined. He had specialized in the training of aquatic animals and was able to do any kind of juggling with his staff.

“They both seem to be really agreeable”, Lailah continued. By then they had almost reached the big top, “although I also think that Sorey-san is the one who really wants to be here and that Mikleo-san is just accompanying him”

Dezel snorted.

“Well, as long as they both work hard I don’t care if one of them just wants to be here because of his boyfriend”

“Dezel-san”, Lailah said with a certain reproachful tone, “please, try to refrain yourself from making such comments: you could make them feel uncomfortable. Besides, they have been the first ones in quite a while that have wanted to join us so we should be grateful”

Dezel exhaled a sigh while remembering what he had just said to himself about stopping protesting so much.

“Okay, you’re right”, he admitted causing Lailah to smile before patting his arm softly.

“I have a good feeling about this”, she said with a reassuring tone, “I’m sure that with those boys we’ll be able to save the Windriders”

Dezel decided not to say anything because although Lailah’s instinct had proven to work in several occasions he didn’t want to let his hopes up so soon. After all, he had learnt by the hard way how much it could hurt when certain hopes were destroyed.

* * *

When they entered the big top Dezel could hear Rose speaking very animatedly with one of the boys, so he immediately deduced that he must be Sorey.

“Oh, they’re here already”, Rose exclaimed then while approaching Lailah and Dezel, “Sorey, Mikleo, this is Dezel, the third member of the Windriders. He is an expert in manipulating pendulums and he used to be a tightrope walker”

“But that was a long time ago”, Dezel said unable to prevent certain rudeness in his tone, although it seemed that the boys hadn’t minded because they immediately introduced themselves.

“Nice to meet you, Dezel-san”, Sorey said, and his smile could be heard in his voice, “my name is Sorey and this is my friend Mikleo”

“Thank you very much for allowing us to join you”, Mikleo added with a polite tone, and since there was silence Dezel deduced that the boy was offering him a hand, so he extended his arm without hesitation to accept the handshake. After all, although he couldn’t see he was perfectly able to pinpoint the exact location of the others thanks to his extremely sharpened hearing.

“Don’t thank us yet, kid”, Dezel said with a serious tone, “there are a couple of things that we have to know before admitting you”

“Although I’m sure that you’ll be able to join without problems”, Lailah added with a happy tone.

“Yeah. Besides, we can’t be very picky since no one wants to join us”, Rose said with a nervous laugh while scratching the back of her head.

“Okay, sounds fair”, Sorey said with a confident tone that impressed Dezel, “what would you like to know?”

“Well, first of all: why do you want to join the Windriders?”, Dezel asked while crossing his arms, “after all the ‘Circus of the Calamity’ is the most important circus right now, the logical thing to do would be to want to join them instead of us”

“That’s simple”, Sorey said immediately, managing to suppress Dezel once more, “our friends had talked us about your circus so well that Mikleo and I want to join it no matter what”

“Besides, although famous we’ve also heard some things about the ‘Circus of the Calamity’ that we haven’t liked one bit”

Dezel heard Rose exhale a surprised gasp.

“Okay, who are those friends of yours?”, she asked with an enthusiastic tone, “I really want to kiss them right now”

Sorey begun to laugh.

“Don’t worry, you’ll meet them. They had some things to take care of but they should be here in no time”

“Oh, and they looked also interested in being accepted as well”, Mikleo added.

“Really?!”, Rose exclaimed at the same time that Lailah exhaled a high-pitched cry.

“See, Dezel-san?! I told you: my instinct told me that things were going to get better!”

Dezel didn’t say anything. He didn’t know why but something has been bothering him since the moment Sorey mentioned his friends…

“What do you think you are saying, Mibo? I haven’t said anything about wanting to join the Windriders again, baka”

Dezel, Rose and Lailah’s mouth fell opened when hearing that annoyed voice coming from outside the tent.

“ _Again_ …?”, Rose repeated, her tone a mix of surprise and expectation, “no way…”

“Edna-san?”, Lailah asked with a voice that came out a little muffled, indicating Dezel that she had her hands over her mouth.

 After a brief silence Dezel could heard a sigh before some soft steps resounded in the suddenly silent place, indicating him that someone had entered.

“Good grief. At the end that idiot is going to be right when saying that you can’t do anything without us”

Yes, that voice couldn’t belong to anyone but Edna. However, before Dezel could ask anything about why the hell she had returned Lailah and Rose ran towards her to hug her, causing the girl to exhale another annoyed sigh although Dezel could clearly detect some relief on it.

“Oh, Edna-san, I’m so happy that you have come back”, Lailah said, her voice trembling because of the emotion,

“We’ve missed you a lot!”, Rose agreed, “and not just us, Dezel too, but he is too stubborn to admit it”

“Oi!”, Dezel exclaimed, making Lailah and Rose laugh, and he was about to lie and deny what they had just said when Edna spoke again.

“B-But you should know that I haven’t returned because I miss you”, Edna said, her embarrassment evident, “I-I’ve just come back because that idiot was going to stalk me until I accepted”

Dezel frowned.

“That idiot?”, he repeated.

And then he heard the ruffling of the big top again, indicating that another person had just entered, and Dezel was pretty sure that his heart literally stopped for a moment when hearing those heavy steps that reminded him of certain someone who he had been desperately trying to forget during the last years.

_No. It couldn’t be…_

However, before he could even finish his thought, the newcomer approached him incredibly fast to enclose a couple of naked and strong arms around him, making Dezel automatically open his mouth to protest.

But the offended reply never came, because at that moment the stranger did the last thing that Dezel could have been expecting.

He kissed him.

And although in any other situation Dezel would have immediately reacted by pushing the perverted man away this time he found himself unable to do so. Because the lips that were assaulting his mouth at that moment felt familiar, painfully familiar, and the way his stomach tightened and his heart beat crazily inside his chest were, as well, sensations that he thought forgotten. Sensations that he hadn’t expected to experiment again.

And when the stranger finally spoke Dezel could feel all his body suffer a shudder when hearing that unmistakable rude voice that several times in the past had spelled his name between labored breathings, the mere memory causing Dezel to blush involuntarily.

“It’s been a while, Dezel-chan”

Dezel gulped, and when he spoke he only managed to say one word, spelled in a hoarse whisper.

“Zaveid…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that there are several things in this chapter that can be confusing but don’t worry: they’ll be explained eventually :)
> 
> I don’t exactly know when the next update will be because as I’ve said I wouldn’t like to let my other fics abandoned, specially my ToX fic which I’m about to finish. However, I hope to be able to update once a month at least :P
> 
> Hope you have enjoyed the start ;) And please don’t hesitate in commenting! It would be greatly appreciated and I’m always opened to suggestions~! ^^


	2. Reunited again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At the end it took me less than a month :D
> 
> While writing the chapter I’ve been listening to the song “A thousand years” by Christina Perry almost nonstop. I recommend to read it while listening to it. Especially Zaveid and Dezel moments. It’s a really beautiful song and I think that it suits Dezel and Zaveid’s relationship in this fic really much ^^
> 
> Sorry in advance for grammatical mistakes -.- I haven’t had time to re-read the chapter as much as I wanted so during these days I’ll be fixing the errors!

“Daaaamn, it hurts!!”

While Zaveid rubbed his hurt jaw, Edna folded her umbrella while exhaling an exasperated sigh.

“You deserve it. I told you that he wasn’t going to like that, baka!”

“O-ouch, ouch, E-Edna-chan, please, don’t hit me too!”

When seeing that those two weren’t going to stop anytime soon Rose turned to look at Sorey and Mikleo, who looked extremely confused but curious at the same time.

“Sorry about that”, Rose said with an apologetic tone, scratching the back of her head awkwardly, “normally we are a very pacific group and we don’t hit each other like that but…”

“Oh, don’t worry”, Sorey said with a reassuring tone, “Edna had already warned us that maybe Zaveid’s arrival was going to be welcomed in a particular way”

“A-although I have to admit that with _particular_ I wasn’t expecting that”, Mikleo admitted after clearing his throat, his cheeks slightly red when he spoke again in a tone that only Rose and Sorey could hear, “what has exactly happened between those two?”

Rose bit her bottom lip hesitantly before throwing a side glance towards the place where Dezel had disappeared after punching Zaveid.

“It’s a complicated story”, she said simply, her tone turning sad, “a really complicated story”

* * *

Dezel exhaled a deep breath before cursing when realizing that his stupid heart kept beating like crazy and that his body temperature was still way hotter than it should be.

After that unexpected encounter he had literally ran away from the big top to climb to the mini terrace that they had built at the top of the tent where they kept some animals that they had tried to train without any success.

Now he was leaning over the railing, trying that the calm of the high place helped him calm down as well, although at the moment it wasn’t working very well. Damn, how could it work when he could still taste that idiot’s lips on his own?

Dezel exhaled another sigh. He couldn’t believe that Zaveid had returned.

And shit, the nerve of that man was incredible, kissing him as if nothing had happened.

As if he hadn’t left him… _them_ behind without explanations or excuses.

As if those five years hadn’t been there at all.

As if they were still together.

Dezel gritted his teeth while hitting the railing with anger, regretting immediately doing so because his fist still hurt after having hit Zaveid. Damn, that idiot was even stronger than he remembered: even when he had used almost all his strength the bastard had just stumbled backwards a little before recovering and saying: ‘ _Wow, kid, you’ve gotten stronger!_ ’

Dezel clicked his tongue with annoyance. It seemed that those years hadn’t changed Zaveid one bit: he kept being the same rude, shameless, exasperating and irritating man that always managed to get on his nerves.

And the worst part was that despite he had been trying to hate that man with all his might during all those years, and despite he had felt incredibly great while hitting him, the first feeling that had assaulted him when discovering that Zaveid was alive and well was relief.

Dezel exhaled a broken laugh in self-mockery. During all those years Zaveid had just ignored him… _them_ , not bothering in checking how he… _they_ were. And still he felt _relieved_? He couldn’t be more stupid…

At that moment Dezel sensed that someone was climbing up the ladder as well, and although his heart skipped a bit he exhaled a relieved sigh when realizing that the newcomer was Lailah. Her soft aroma was unmistakable, totally different to Zaveid’s one, that was strong and intoxicating and…and why the hell was he wasting his time remembering that idiot’s smell?!

“Dezel-san?”, Lailah’s tone showed concern, “are you alright? Your cheeks are unusually red”

Dezel could feel himself blushing even more. Damn, he had always hated how easily embarrassed he got.

“Yeah, I couldn’t be better”, he said with sarcasm, “if that idiot was right here it would be completely perfect”

He heard Lailah exhale a sigh, and he was already regretting to have answered so poorly when Lailah situated next to him, so close that their arms were almost touching.

“Do you want to talk about it?”, Lailah asked in a such a worried voice that although Dezel’s first impulse had been to tell her to leave him alone, he found himself answering instead.

“I don’t think there’s much to talk”, he answered sincerely, his tone sounding a little strained for the effort to try to keep it neutral, “simply, those two had just returned and it seems that they plan to join us again”

There was a brief moment of silence before Lailah spoke again.

“And you are okay with that?”

Dezel snorted.

“Of course I am not”, he admitted, “I mean I don’t have anything against Edna. After all she left in order to take care of Eizen. But _he_ …”, Dezel gulped, trying that his voice didn’t tremble when continuing speaking, “… _he_ didn’t have any excuse. And in case he had it, it seems that we weren’t important enough for him so he could share it with us”

Lailah gulped, and although she opened her mouth with the clear intention of replying at the end she just shook her head and remained silent, as if she had thought it better at the last moment.

But of course, Dezel couldn’t see any of that.

“Well, who knows? At the end maybe me being the reason for what those two left wasn’t as absurd as I thought at first”, Dezel commented then, and although he tried to use a sarcastic tone Lailah immediately detected insecurity as well.

“Don’t say things like that!”, she exclaimed, “nothing about what happened was your fault, and you know it”

Dezel shrugged.

“Sometimes I’m not so sure about that”, he could felt Lailah’s piercing gaze so he continued, “I know that Hedalf and Symonne are the most at fault but still I know that if I had been stronger, maybe Lafarga would have survived. And definitely Eizen wouldn’t be in the state he is right now”

Lailah sighed again and leant her head against Dezel’s shoulder, that sudden gesture making him jump a little with surprise.

“Dezel-san”, she said, her tone incredibly soft, “there is no meaning in trying to take the blame for what happened. And I can assure you that neither Edna-san nor Zaveid-san think like that”

Dezel gulped, and just when he was going to ask Lailah why she was so sure about that she stopped being leaning against him and stood up while exhaling a high-pitched cry.

“What’s wrong?”, Dezel exclaimed immediately. It was in those moments when he missed to be able to see.

“I-It’s Zaveid-san! He is about to enter the animals’ tent and…”

“Damn!”

Without letting Lailah finish speaking Dezel ran towards the ladder and climbed it down the fastest he could, blocking in time the access to the tent.

“Where do you think you are going?”, Dezel asked while crossing his arms, his body tensing when Zaveid laughed as an answer.

“Relax, Dezel-chan”, Zaveid’s voice got closer and closer as he approached him, and to Dezel’s surprise the man threw an arm around his shoulder in an extremely annoying amicable way, making him bend down a little because of the weight, “Rose-chan has commented that you have problems while training animals so I just wanted to check them”

“Tsk, too bad: to do that you must be a member of the Windriders”, Dezel said with a rude tone while pushing Zaveid away with a rude shove, “and don’t touch me like that”,

However, to Dezel’s frustration Zaveid just chuckled.

“Oh? So would you prefer me to touch in any other way?”, he suggested in a tone that caused Dezel’s heart to skip a beat, his body’s temperature raising again.

“Okay, it seems that you haven’t had enough with just one punch”, Dezel commented with a calm tone before trying to hit Zaveid again, but this time the man was prepared and avoided the hit easily while laughing.

“Oi, it was just a joke”, he exclaimed, his cheery tone just annoying Dezel even more, “and if I remember correctly you loved that kind of stupid jokes…”

“Yeah, you’re right, there’s a lot of things that I _used_ to love”, Dezel snapped, cursing again his blindness for not being able to glare at the joking idiot that was in front of him, “but let me remind you that during all these years some of us have been busy trying to maintain the circus that _you_ decided to abandon, so sorry if during the time you haven’t been here I’ve lost some of my sense of humor”

Zaveid scratched the back of his head before speaking again with a conciliatory tone that caused Dezel to get even more annoyed.

“Listen, Dezel-chan, if you let me inside I can explain you why…”

“ _Oh_ , really?”, Dezel said with sarcasm, “what a luck I have! After all I’ve just been waiting five damn years to have some kind of explanation”

“Dezel…”, Zaveid’s voice sounded suddenly awkward, “I-I think that we should speak about this later since…”

“SHUT UP!”

Dezel shouted, finally letting out all the frustration that he had been accumulating, and he regretted that Zaveid didn’t have a damn shirt on in order to be able to grab him by it, having to be content with grabbing his collar with a fist, their faces so close that he could feel the older man’s breathing against his.

To hell with waiting to talk about it. He didn’t want to risk that the bastard tried to escape from the conversation.

“Shut up”, he repeated in a lower tone that was full of resentment, “you don’t have the slightest idea of how damn hard these years have been for us, how damn much we’ve struggled trying to keep the Windriders alive even when we were just three people. And _now_ , after all that time, you want to come back to join us? Do you really think that we are going to accept you so easily?”, Dezel exhaled an empty laugh, “please, don’t make me laugh”

“Dezel-chan…”

The named one ignored Zaveid’s warning tone once again and kept talking. Now that he had begun, he found himself unable to stop.

“Lafarga’s death and what happened to Eizen was a huge blow for all of us. And I know that every person reacts differently when something like that happens, so I can perfectly understand that Edna wanted to leave with her brother in order to take care of him, the same way that I can understand that she left without saying goodbye because we all know how shy she is and how she hates to let her feelings out. But _you_ …”

Dezel incremented the grip on Zaveid’s collar and his tone became sharper.

“What excuse do _you_ have to leave as well without saying anything? Hah? We…”, Dezel insulted himself internally when he was forced to clear his throat to keep speaking, since his voice had been about to fail him, “We were supposed to be together but you didn’t even wait for me to recover. Do you know how it was for me to wake up and find that you weren’t there? To discover that, besides my eyesight, Lafarga and Eizen, I had just lost you as well?”, Dezel snorted but it came out almost as a sob, “your explanation better be incredibly good if you don’t want me to kill you right now for coming here so nonchalantly as if nothing had happened”

There was a silence. A rather long silence. And then, suddenly, Dezel heard a sob that definitely didn’t belong to Zaveid.

“What the…?”, Dezel begun, but before he could finish the sentence his breath was taken away when a familiar female figure stomped on him to give him an extremely tight hug.

“You idiot! Why the hell did you keep all that to yourself?!”

Dezel froze in place, his mouth falling opened.

“Rose?!”

Dezel felt his t-shirt getting wet, indicating him that the girl was crying against his chest.

No, it couldn’t be that she had been there _all the time_ while he…

“Tsk, I’m not shy and definitely I don’t have any problem to show my feelings, baka”

Dezel turned even paler when hearing Edna speaking in a voice that sounded suspiciously trembling. Oh no, she had been there too?!

“D-Dezel, although we’ve just met you must know that you have my deepest admiration. To be able to say aloud those things…I-I would never be able to do that, you’re really brave!”

“Yes, Mikleo is right! And although I don’t understand very well yet what happened five years ago I can deduce that it was something really horrible and that only makes me want to help you even more!”

After another silence Dezel finally recovered from the shock and spoke, his voice trembling again but this time because of the embarrassment.

“B-bastard!”, he snapped, focusing on Zaveid again, “why the hell didn’t you tell me that we weren’t alone?!”

“Oi, I tried to tell you twice but you didn’t listen to me!”, Zaveid exclaimed with a defensive tone.

“Argh, shut up!”, Dezel exclaimed, covering more his eyes with his top hat in order to hide his blushing, but that only made Zaveid exhale a sig h while scratching the back of his head, the hint of a resigned smile appearing on his face.

“Dezel-san!”, Lailah finally appeared. It seemed that it had taken her a while to climb down the ladder, “you’ve left without giving me the chance to say that the rest was coming too!”

Now, it was Dezel’s turn to exhale a resigned sigh.

“Thanks for the warning, Lailah”, he said with irony, and to his surprise Rose, who until then had been sobbing nonstop, exhaled a chuckle that soon developed in such a contagious laugh that everyone ended laughing as well, Edna included.

And even Dezel, who some moments ago had been feeling about to cry, found himself relaxing and about to smile when hearing that, because it had been a really long time since the last time Rose, Lailah and he had found something to laugh.

“Well…”, Rose said looking at Zaveid and Edna when everyone had finally calmed down, “what did you want to show us?”

Without losing any more time Zaveid and Edna entered the animals tent first, followed by the rest. During the time that they had been settled at Goddodin they had just been able to capture three dodos, two wolfs and a ground octopus.

“Wow, they are good specimens”, Zaveid said with an impressed tone while approaching a dodo’s cage, grabbing with both of his hands the bars.

“Yes, but we don’t know why we don’t manage to train them”, Rose said with a sad tone.

“Not even Dezel-san”, Lailah added, “and that’s weird because he uses to have a way with animals”

Dezel could physically feel the way Sorey and Mikleo fixed their impressed eyes on him.

“Is that so, Dezel?!”, Sorey exclaimed with an enthusiastic tone, “then would you teach me how to do so? I can just train small animals but I’ve never trained such as big ones as these”

“Yes, me neither”, Mikleo agreed, “it would be fantastic if you could help us”

Dezel clicked his tongue, embarrassed when detecting a deep admiration in the boys’ voices.

“Sorry, but although I wouldn’t particularly mind to lose some of my time to teach you it’s as Rose has said: this animals are impossible to train”

“Why?”, Edna asked.

Dezel was going to answer but Lailah was faster.

“They’re unusually violent. All of them. And despite using all the tactics that we know we’ve just managed to get close to them in order to feed them, but that’s all”

“We even tried to call a vet but just two agreed to try to help the animals and they hadn’t any success”, Rose added.

Edna and Zaveid interchanged a glance and after nodding they approached a dodo’s cage.

“Okay, guys, we are going to enter”

“Wait, wouldn’t it be better if one of us entered as well?”, Lailah asked with an unsure tone, “After all we’ve been with these animals almost a month and they have got more or less used to our presence”

“Although as we’ve said they are still really violent”, Rose added.

“Nah”, Zaveid said with a casual tone, “it will be really fast, don’t worry”

After saying that Edna extracted from the normin toy that was adorning her umbrella a small bottle full of a white liquid.

“What is that?”, Dezel asked after Lailah explained him what was happening.

“You’ll see in a moment”, Zaveid said with a cheery tone, and Dezel was going to reply that that was going to be a little difficult for him when suddenly Zaveid approached the dodo at full speed and jumped over it in order to pin him against the ground, causing the surprised animal to begin to protest with violence immediately.

“Zaveid!!”, Rose exclaimed with worry while Lailah covered her mouth with one of her hands.

“Be careful!”, Mikleo exclaimed while Sorey stared with astonishment.

“Tsk, bastard, do you want to get yourself killed?”, Dezel snapped when hearing the ruckus that the dodo was causing while trying to escape from Zaveid’s grip.

It was not the first time that Zaveid used that technique to dominate animals but Dezel had never got used to it, feeling apprehension every time that Zaveid risked himself like that, and again he felt like an idiot for having that kind of feelings for that man.

However, it seemed that the group was worrying too much because Zaveid looked perfectly calm, and after some seconds, when he managed to force the fighting dodo to open its beak, he spoke.

“Edna, now!”, Zaveid said with a commanding voice.

Edna hadn’t to be told twice. With a fast movement she approached the fallen dodo and with a precision that could only have born from practice she let fall a simple drop of the bottle into the dodo’s mouth.

The effect was immediate: the dodo immediately stopped struggling and its bloodshot big eyes regained a normal color, its breathing becoming natural again.

“Easy there, boy”, Zaveid said with a soft voice, releasing the now frightened animal while kneeling next to him to pet it softly, “it’s over now”

Edna kneeled down as well and mimicked Zaveid’s actions, and thanks to their careful treatment in just a minute the dodo looked perfectly fine, all its previous violence vanished.

Zaveid and Edna continued calming down the animal in front of the completely shocked silent group until Rose’s nervous voice broke the silence that had just settled.

“What…you…what the hell has happened?!”

It seemed that she was the only one who was able to speak since Lailah’s mouth was still covered by her hand, Sorey and Mikleo’s eyes seemed about to pop out their heads, and Dezel was trying to force his heart to regain his normal beating because hearing Zaveid speak in such a tender voice had just brought a torrent of memories that weren’t precisely involving animals.

“We’ve just healed the dodo”, Edna said simply, “that’s all”

“ _That’s all_?!”, Rose exclaimed, “it’s…guys, it’s been awesome! How had you done it?!”

“Well…”, Zaveid begun, finally standing up and letting Edna keep petting the animal, that looked about to fall asleep, “didn’t you want to know why it has taken too much to come back? Well…”, Zaveid signaled with a wide gesture the other animals which keep struggling inside their individual cages, “…this is the reason”

Dezel frowned, and he was about to demand Zaveid a more detailed explanation when Edna spoke, since the dodo had just fall asleep over her knees.

“Do you know why Hedalf’s Circus is so famous?”

Dezel automatically tensed when hearing that name, and Rose seemed to notice it because she settled a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

“Well…”, Lailah begun, “because it’s extremely big, and it has a lot of performers, and the animals it trains are incredibly weird and can’t be trained by anyone else…”, Lailah shut up, her eyes opening wide in horror, “wait…are you suggesting…?”

Zaveid and Edna nodded.

“Yes, Lailah-chan, it’s as you’ve guessed”, Zaveid said, “during these years Hedalf has been capturing animals to experiment with them. For that reason the ones that he uses in his circus are so rare. He had created them with Symonne’s help by using normal animals”

“Then…”, Rose murmured, her tone almost a whisper, “…the animal that we don’t manage to train…”

Edna nodded.

“They are the animals that he had used and discarded when they weren’t useful anymore”, Edna said, her tone calm but her hands turned into fists over the ground, “he captures them, torture them with experiments in order to create his monsters until they become crazy and then abandon them”

“And by doing that he makes sure to remove the competence as well”, Zaveid added while crossing his arms, “since the rest of the people is unable to train the animals he has used”

There is a long silence.

“Then…”, Rose begun, “what you’ve been doing all these five years has been to find the antidote that Edna has used?”

Zaveid laughed.

“Of course it’s not been just that: we would be extremely lame if it had cost us so much”

“Although it still cost us almost a year”, Edna added.

“Then what the hell have you been doing all this time?”, Dezel snapped, unable to remain quiet anymore.

There was another pause until Zaveid spoke, and when he did his tone was unusually serious.

“We’ve been searching a way to destroy Hedalf completely”

After another long silence Lailah was the first one to speak, since Dezel’s mouth had fallen completely opened.

“Are you serious?”, she said with a tiny voice.

“Yeah, Lailah-chan, we are”, Zaveid said, certain of his usually friendliness coming back to his tone, “since the moment Hedalf opened the circus five years I’ve been on his trail, watching its performances in order to search for information. And thanks to Edna-chan, who joined me four years ago after taking care of Eizen, we’ve been able to learn everything about his circus’ weak points”

“Also we’ve learned how to heal the animals that he has been discarding along the world during his tours , Edna added, “the same way we’ve learned the fastest way to train them”

“And…”, Zaveid said finally, “…we’ve done that in time because in just three months there’s going to be a competition in Ladylake to determinate what circus is the worthiest to perform in order to celebrate the coronation of the Princess Alisha”

“What?!”, Rose exclaimed, “t-that’s impossible! We don’t stand a chance against the Circus of the Calamity right now!!”

“You’re right, we don’t stand a chance _now_ but…”, Zaveid smiled widely, almost predatorily, “…in three months we’ll be able to beat them. And that would be the same as destroying them”

“Do you really think so?”, Lailah said, her tone suddenly hopeful, “do you really think that we will be able to do it in just three months?”

Zaveid laughed openly.

“Come on, Lailah-cha, what’s happened to your usual confidence?”, he asked teasingly, “the Lailah-chan that I know wouldn’t hesitate in doing this”

Lailah chuckled softly before nodding, her eyes shining with emotion.

“Zaveid-san, you’re right. Rose-san”, she added looking at the girl, “we can do it. With Edna-san and Zaveid-san by our side again we’ll be unstoppable!”

Rose exhaled a happy laugh.

“Oh guys, this is going to be awesome!”, she exclaimed, “the Windriders will finally come back to life!”

“And what about you, newbies?”, Zaveid added approaching Mileo and Sorey to enclose his arms around them, “do you still want to help us be the best circus of the world?”

Mikleo looked still hesitant but Sorey began to laugh.

“Of course we want, right Mikleo?!”

“Well…I’m not sure if we’ll be good enough in three months to be really useful…”

“Come on, what are you saying?”, Sorey exclaimed, “you’re way better than me, and your technique with your staff is awesome! If you’re this good right now I don’t want to imagine how incredible you will be in three months!”

After hearing Sorey’s words Mikleo’s pale skin turned bright red in an instant, causing Zaveid to begin to laugh.

“See, boy? Your boyfriend’s faith in you is enough to accept both of you without hesitating”

“H-He’s not my boyfriend!”, Mikleo exclaimed, even redder if possible, but no one (not even Sorey) said anything to support the denial of the embarrassed boy.

“Well, then it’s decided!”, Rose said, “we better begin to plan tonight show now that we know how to heal these animals and…”

“Wait, Rose-san…”, Lailah said, “we can’t do that yet”

“Hah?!”, Rose exclaimed with disappointment, “why not?”

“Because there’s still one person that has to agree on this”, Zaveid said, releasing Sorey and Mikleo, “right, Dezel-chan?”

Everyone turned to look at Dezel, who hadn’t said anything since Zaveid and Edna began to his explanation and that had just been standing there with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Dezel…”, Rose begun, but Lailah immediately shook her head indicating the girl to remain silent, and Rose immediately complied.

“So, Dezel-chan?”, Zaveid asked again, his tone still joking but softer than usual, “do you think that you’ll be able to forget your hate for me and join us to destroy that bastard?”

Dezel exhaled a deep breath. And then, he finally spoke.

“Just answer me one thing”, he said, unable to suppress a gulp before speaking next, “if you were doing that to destroy Hedalf…why didn’t you ask us for help? Why did Edna and you do everything by yourselves? Weren’t we trustworthy enough or did you just decid that neither of us was going to be able to help?”

Although he had tried to talk with calm with every question Dezel’s tone became sharper and sharper, causing Lailah and Rose bit her bottom lip but neither of them said anything because Dezel’s anger was understandable.

“The reason is simple, kid”, Zaveid said approaching Dezel, and this one hadn’t time to protest for being called kid when he was already 22 because at that moment he felt Zaveid’s warm hand on his shoulder, “because if Rose-chan, Lailah-chan and you hadn’t taken care of the Windriders, Edna-chan and I wouldn’t have been able to do anything”

“Maybe you didn’t notice but Hedalf and Symonne have always been observing the Windriders”, Edna commented, “they wanted to make sure that we didn’t suppose a threat for their circus”

“So...”, Dezel said, the frown still in place, “…we’ve just been useful as a _distraction_?”

“No, Dezel-chan, not _just_ as a distraction”, Zaveid said with such a grateful tone that Dezel was unable to prevent a light blush from appearing on his cheeks, “you’ve managed to keep alive the circus that Lafarga created even when Hedalf and Symonne were doing everything they could to stop it, like suborning the cities so they didn’t let you pass, or suborning people so they didn’t go to watch your performances, and you have been able to maintain a home for Edna-chan and I to come back. Do you still think that I left because I didn’t trust you? Dezel-chan…”, Zaveid dared to lean his forehead against Dezel’s, and this time, the last one didn’t protest, “…if I left, it was precisely because I did trust you. A lot.”

Dezel gulped, and after clicking his tongue he pushed Zaveid away, although now the felt as if an extremely heavy weight had just disappeared from his chest, now that he knew that Zaveid hadn’t left because of him.

“Tsk, stop trying to seduce me with your words, idiot”, he snapped, but everyone smiled relieved because part of his tension had disappeared.

“Well, I can always seduce you in a more physical way…”

“GO TO HELL!”

Everyone began to laugh when hearing Dezel’s mortified tone, and although he tried to hide his face with his hat it was evident that he was completely red.

“Hey, one last thing!”, Rose said suddenly, looking at Sorey and Mikleo and at Zaveid and Edna alternatively, “we still don’t know how you met”

“Oh, Zaveid and Edna visited our hometown in one of their travels”, Mikleo explained. Now his skin had his usual pale color again, “the animals of our place had been affected by Hedalf and we were in serious trouble because we couldn’t travel or hunt without being attacked, but they managed to heal them as you’ve seen”

“And then we talked about the Windriders and we decided that we wanted to join you”, Sorey added with a happy smile, “after all we’ve always loved the circus and we’ve been training on our own, so when discovering that the people who had saved our hometown belonged to a circus we had to totally join”

“Well, Sorey thought that: at first I just wanted to accompany him to take care of him”, Mikleo said with a certain superior tone.

“Yeah, well, but now you are happy to be here, admit it”, Sorey said hitting Mikleo on the ribs playfully.

“Of course I am”, Mileo admitted, and then he added in a tone that only Dezel could hear, “I am always when I’m with you…”

Dezel had to bite his tongue not to make a comment. That boy was obviously in love with Sorey, how couldn’t he see it?

“Well then…”, Rose exclaimed, “now that we ALL agree let’s go! We have a lot to do but first let’s see how we are going to arrange everything now that we have four more people with us!”

“Although I think that we should heal these animals first”, Edna suggested, and of course everyone agreed immediately.

After healing them, everyone left the tent speaking animatedly, and just when Dezel was about to follow the rest out of the tent, his arm was grabbed in a rude way that could only belong to a person.

“What do you want no…?”

For a second time that day, Dezel felt his heart about to explode when he was turned around violently and his mouth met Zaveid’s one once again, although this time the kiss was extremely brief, almost a peck on the lips, so light that for a moment Dezel thought that maybe he had imagined it.

“Sorry, Dezel-chan”, the younger man couldn’t avoid a gulp when Zaveid spoke in a tone that hadn’t any of his usual mockery on it, “I know that during these five years I’ve left you alone, and believe me when I say that it hasn’t been easy for me either. But there’s something that you must know”

Despite the idiotic of the action Dezel’s blind eyes opened as its maximum when Zaveid hugged him, and he found himself unable to push the taller man away this time, his body adjusting to Zaveid’s one automatically, enjoying the familiar warm that radiated from him.

“You never lost me”, Zaveid murmured against his hair, “and you never will”

Dezel exhaled a deep sigh, fighting to remove the lump that had just formed on his dry throat, and just when Zaveid was about to release him Dezel enclosed his arms around Zaveid’s waist, burying his face into the crook of his neck, and it seemed that Zaveid wasn’t expecting that because he exhaled a surprised grunt.

“Don’t misinterpret me”, Zavied said with a grumpy tone that came out a little muffled, “I’m still angry with you even if you had motives for leaving. And I haven’t forgiven you yet for not telling me anything. So if you dare to kiss me again I’ll punch you this time for real, understand?”

After saying that, Dezel pushed Zaveid away rudely, blushing furiously from embarrassment, but that only caused Zaveid to laugh openly.

“Well, if the punishment for kissing you is just a punch I don’t mind to gain a black eye…”, Zaveid laughed again when seeing Dezel tense up, “It’s a joke, I promise that I won’t do it until you let me”

Dezel snorted.

“And why do you think that I’m going to let you do that?”, he asked with false curiosity before exhaling a gasp when suddenly Zaveid approached him again to be whispering just in his ear.

“Because I managed to steal your heart once”, Zaveid said simply, “and I’m going to put all my efforts to make that happen again”

Zaveid ended the sentence nudging Dezel’s ear with his nose in a playful gesture before separating, causing Dezel to shiver against his will. Damn, since he had lost his eyesight his body was even more sensitive than usual.

“Tsk. Keep dreaming, idiot”, Dezel snapped, but he couldn’t prevent a hint of a smile from appearing on his face because against his will he had always liked Zaveid’s extreme confidence, and he knew that Zaveid had noticed it because he could practically feel the satisfied smile that was adorning the man’s face.

“Dezel! Zaveid!”, Rose entered the tent suddenly and her eyes opened wide when seeing the two men standing so close in front of each other, “o-oh, sorry, have I interrupted something?”

“Nope, Rose-chan, unfortunately you haven’t”, Zaveid commented with his usual cheery tone before walking towards the exit, ruffling Rose’s head teasingly before leaving both Rose and Dezel behind.

“Umh…is everything okay between you two?”, Rose asked Dezel with an unsure voice once Zaveid had left.

Dezel exhaled a sigh before shrugging.

“All the okay it can be”, he said sincerely.

“Oh, then that means that you’re together again?!”, Rose exclaimed with an enthusiastic voice.

“No”, Dezel answered immediately, “no and I don’t think we will”

“Oh…”, Rose said with a certain sad tone, “what a pity. You really looked good together”

Dezel didn’t said anything.

It was true that now he could feel in part relieved because he finally understood why Zaveid had left but still, as he had told Zaveid, he couldn’t forgive him so easily, and he wasn’t sure that he could ever do it. Not completely at least. Because yes, maybe Zaveid had taken the right decision when he left without saying anything because it was very probable that in case of knowing about his plan Dezel had tried to follow him.

But still, he was sure that Zaveid could have contacted him. At least once. Just once to let him know that he was okay. But he didn’t. And that had hurt him almost as much as losing Lafarga.

So, despite Zaveid’s overwhelming confidence in his skills to win his heart, he seriously doubted that they could recover their previous relationship. He had to admit that he still felt attracted to Zaveid, and that he still cared about him. There was no point in denying that. But he didn’t want to feel the same way he had felt for him again. Just remembering how damn it hurt when Zaveid left was enough to make him not wanting to risk again to fall so deeply for someone.

He didn’t mind to try to be friends again. But nothing more.

“Well, then let’s go”, Rose said with an animated tone, interrupting Dezel’s thoughts, “the soonest we leave everything arranged the soonest we’ll go to train the animals. It would be awesome that we could include them in tonight performance”

Dezel exhaled a resigned sigh. It was going to be a long day.

“Oh, and Dezel…”, Rose stopped him just when they were about to exit the tent.

“Yes?”, Dezel asked with confusion when seeing that Rose wasn’t continuing.

“Umh…”, Rose scratched the back of her head before speaking again, “maybe I’m sticking my nose right now but I think that even if you don’t love Zaveid anymore, he does still love you. The expression he has when he looks at you is the same he had five years ago”

Dezel felt his heart skip a beat but he made an effort to keep his expression neutral. However, before he could reply anything Rose spoke once again, now her tone a little teasing.

“Oh, and so just you know he looks even hotter than five years ago”

Dezel’s mouth fell opened when hearing the girl’s words but by when he managed to react Rose had already left while chuckling.

“Tsk, damn girl…”, he murmured with a sulking tone, because now he had to wait until his cheeks recovered his normal color before joining the rest.

* * *

“Zaveid-san?”

“Yeah, Lailah-chan?”

“…Why haven’t you told Dezel-san the truth?”

Zaveid turned to look at Lailah with a surprised expression. Everyone was going towards the training tent but they had remained in the last line.

“Oi, oi, I’ve told him the truth”, he said with a defensive tone, “ask Edna-chan if you don’t believe me…”

“Zaveid-san, you know what I’m talking about”, Lailah said, a frown appearing on her face, “yes, you’ve told him part of the truth but not _all_ the truth. And precisely the part that you have omitted is the most important one!”

Zaveid smiled while exhaling a soft sigh.

“I’ve told him what he needs to know”, he said simply while fixing his eyes on Dezel, who was walking in front of them side to side with Rose completely unaware of the elder’s conversation.

“But Zaveid-san…”, Lailah’s voice sounded frustrated, “he doesn’t know that you left for his sake. He doesn’t know that the real reason why you left was because…”

“Lailah”, she stopped talking immediately when hearing Zaveid’s sudden serious tone, “that doesn’t matter. Even if you’re right the fact that I abandoned him is still there. The motives for that don’t matter at all”

Lailah exhaled a resigned sigh. She knew Zaveid well enough to know that when he took a decision, it was impossible to make him change opinion.

“Besides…”, Zaveid added with his usual nonchalant tone, “…to make Dezel-chan fall for me again will be incredibly funny”

Lailah couldn’t suppress a soft chuckle, a smile that was tender and sad at the same time appearing on her face.

“You’ve always liked to do things the hard way”, she sighed, causing Zaveid to laugh.

“Come on, Lailah-chan”, he leant his elbow on her shoulder, “remove that sad expression from your face. You’re even prettier when you are happy”

Lailah shook her head with resignation but her smile was still in place.

“Oi, you two, hurry up already”

Dezel and Rose had just stopped and were looking at them, the first one with a grumpy expression on his face and the second one with one full curiosity.

“Oh, Dezel-chan, don’t be jealous. I was just talking with Lailah-chan”, Zaveid said teasingly before approaching Dezel in a couple of long steps to enclose his arm around Dezel’s shoulders.

“I’m not jealous, idiot”, Dezel snapped trying to get free from the tight grip, but he was bright red so maybe Zaveid’s supposition wasn’t so far from the truth.

Lailah exhaled another sigh while observing their two friends. If it was up to her, she would tell Dezel what Zaveid was purposely hiding.

But she had promised Zaveid back then that she would remain silent, and she always fulfilled her promises, even when then now she was dying to break it because she really wanted them to be happy again. They both deserved it after having suffering so much.

“Ne, Lailah…”

Rose had approached her discretely taking opportunity that Zaveid and Dezel were discussing and that Sorey, Mikleo and Edna had just joined them to try to calm things down. Or well, at least Sorey and Mikleo had approached them with that intention, since Edna was just using her umbrella to hit them both alternatively.

“Yes, Rose-san?”

Rose bit her bottom lip before speaking again.

“Do you think that I will be a busybody if I try to make those two be together again?”

Lailah opened her eyes at her maximum with surprise when hearing her thoughts being spoken before beginning to laugh.

“Yes, Rose-chan, you will”, she said, but just when Rose’s expression was turning sad she added, “but in this case I think that a busybody is precisely what those two may need right now”

Rose’s expression brightened.

“So are you going to help me?! Because I have a couple of ideas but I would need your help”

Lailah hesitated. It was true that she had promised Zaveid not to say anything, but she hadn’t promised anything about not _doing_ anything, so at the end she nodded enthusiastically.

“Of course, Rose-chan”, Lailah said while grabbing both of Rose’s hands, “let’s begin the ‘Windriders Matchmaker Operation’ right now!”

Rose burst out laughing when hearing the name.

“L-Lailah, Rose!”, the two women focused on the rest again when hearing Mikleo’s worried voice, “Please, come help us, I think that Edna wants to kill Dezel and Zaveid with her umbrella!”

“Tsk, it’s their fault for being a couple of bakas that don’t acknowledge their feelings for each other”

“Hey, I don’t have anything to acknowledge!”

“Hehe, you’re blushing Dezel-chan…”

“ _Shut up, idiot_!”

“Hahahaha. See, Mikleo?! I was right in wanting to join the Windriders: they are really funny!”

Lailah and Rose interchanged a glance and begun to laugh again before approaching the rest of the group.

It seemed that, finally, things were going to get better again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To the fans of Sorey and Mikleo pair, I hope that you have liked the hints of Mikleo being completely in love with Sorey ^^ I know that they haven’t had many moments but that will gradually change in the next chapters :)
> 
> Also, since in this chapter I had to explain why Zaveid and Edna disappeared (or better said, part of why they disappeared :P) Dezel and Zaveid haven’t interacted much, but that will change as well. After all they are the main pair ;)
> 
> I hope you have enjoyed the chapter despite that ^^ As always, comments will be really appreciated ;)


	3. A village as an audience

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the chapter three is out! Sorry in advance for grammatical mistakes: I haven’t had time to re-read the chapter as much as I wanted -.-
> 
> Also, regarding this chapter I must confess that I’m a music freak and I love to search songs that could suit certain moments of the fic, and in this particular case since Tales of Zestiria OST is so incredibly good I think that the best songs for the character’s performances that I describe during the chapter are the songs of their respective trials (except in Sorey and Rose’s case) :P
> 
> \- Lailah: “Flaming Bonds are Being Tested” [Fire Trial Music]  
> \- Edna and Mikleo: “Competing with the Honor of the Land” [Earth Trial Music]  
> \- Sorey and Rose: “Rising Up”  
> \- Dezel and Zaveid: “Fight Between the Wind and the Blinking Sky” [Wind Trial Music]
> 
> Finally, the song that is transcribed at the ending is “Everybody hurts”, by Avril Lavigne :)

“…Can you repeat what you’ve just said?”

Rose exhaled a patience sigh.

“Jeez, I thought that I had explained myself clearly enough…”

“Yes, you’ve explained yourself perfectly, but I don’t understand why the hell that idiot and I are the only ones who are going in a separated group”

“Dezel-chan, your words are always so sweet…”

Dezel ignored Zaveid’s ironic tone in order to keep protesting, but Rose didn’t let him do so.

“Look Dezel, if we want to include new things for tonight show we need to work fast. _Really_ fast. And since Edna and Zaveid have determined that using the animals so soon could be a little risky because they are not completely recovered, our only option is to work on our respective skills”

“Yes, I understand that, but…”

“Therefore…”, Rose continued, stopping Dezel from interrupting her, “you and Zaveid must train together, and since you need a lot of space to use your pendulums it’s better if you train alone. Meanwhile, while Lailah finishes arranging everything Sorey and I will train together to do a fighting exhibition, making the most of his ability with the sword and my ability with daggers. And since Edna and Mikelo are both jugglers and dancers they’ll train together as well”

“Dancers?!”, Mikleo exclaimed, losing some of his usual calm, “wait a minute, I really want to be a juggler but I’ve never danced before, and I don’t think that I’m able to do it fine in such a short time”

“Don’t worry, Mibo”, Edna says while patting Mikleo’s head once with her umbrella, causing the kid to exhale a soft ‘ _ouch’_ , “you have the luck of having me as a teacher so you’ll learn really fast”

 “Come on, Mikleo, cheer up”, Sorey put a hand on his shoulder, “you’re good practically at everything: you’ll do it great”

Mikleo blushed furiously and after clearing his throat he crossed his arms.

“Y-you’re right. Besides, if a little kid like Edna is able to do it that means that it can’t be too diffic… _OUCH_!”

“Who are you calling _little kid_ , baka?”, Edna said with a grumpy tone while hitting Mikleo again, this time with more force.

Zaveid burst out laughing while leaning his elbow over Dezel’s shoulder, causing this one to bend down a little because of the extra weight.

“Don’t get fooled by Edna-chan’s appearance, boy. She is older than Dezel”

“HAH?!”, Sorey and Mikleo exclaimed at the same time.

“She is just _one_ year older”, Dezel said with a sulking tone that caused Zaveid to laugh again while flicking his hat playfully, forcing Dezel to use his hands in order to prevent the hat from falling to the ground.

“So, that’s the way things are”, Rose continued speaking, “see, Dezel? It has perfect sense that the groups are separated like this. And since Mikleo and Sorey have just joined us I’ve thought that it would be better if they train together until they get used to us”

“Oh, I’ve already got used to you guys”, Sorey said immediately, and although Dezel couldn’t see it he could perfectly hear the kid’s voice being suddenly muffled, as if someone (aka Rose) had just put a hand over his mouth to stop him from speaking.

“Yeah, Rose-chan, don’t worry, your groups are perfect as they are”, Zaveid intervened, and his tone sounded even happier than usual, “come one, Dezel-chan. Show me what you are able to do”

Dezel snorted.

“I could tell you the same, old man”, he snapped, “I bet that these years you haven’t trained so probably now I’m better than you”

“Oh?”, Zaveid said with a wide smile when hearing Dezel’s challenging tone, “you’re confident, hah?”, he enclosed an arm around Dezel’s shoulder and whispered just in his ear, “very well, Dezel-chan. Show me what you can do”

Dezel just snorted again before pushing Zaveid away, beginning to walk towards the big top with fast steps, Zaveid following him with a smile still on his face.

“Well, let’s go guys”, Rose said with a satisfied tone once Dezel and Zaveid had disappeared inside the big top, “we’ll have work to do”

Sorey and Mikleo nodded at the same time before beginning to walk towards the second biggest tent of the circus, where they were going to train.

“Rose”, Edna said when she was sure that neither Sorey nor Mikleo could hear them.

“Yes, Edna?”

“You know that it’s extremely obvious what Lailah and you are trying to do with those two, right?”

Rose opened her eyes with surprise before smiling. It was stupid to try to fool Edna.

“Yeah, I know”, she admitted, and then she added with an expecting tone, “please, please, tell me that you’re going to join the ‘Windriders  Matchmaker Operation’ as well”

Edna rolled her eyes when hearing the name but after a little pause she shrugged.

“Well, I don’t particularly dislike the idea. Besides…”, Edna opened her umbrella to hide her face, thing that she always did when she was embarrassed, “… Zaveid has helped me a lot during these years, so I don’t mind to help him to seduce that baka again”

Rose laughed happily.

“Thank you, Edna! I’m sure that with your help our operation will be a huge success!”

Edna sighed with patience but there was a tiny smile on her face while they finally followed Mikleo and Sorey.

* * *

“So, Dezel-chan…”, Zaveid said while sitting on the mini-platform that Rose always used to make the opening of their shows, “…impress me”

Dezel clicked his tongue and got into position while Zaveid put himself comfortable, his right ankle crossed over his opposite knee and his arms crossed as well in front of his muscular chest.

“Tsk. You better pay attention, old man, because I’m not going to do it twice”

“Oh, don’t worry Dezel-chan”, Zaveid said while leaning forward a little in order to observe Dezel better, “I’m always paying attention to you”

Three minutes later, Dezel finished his exhibition with a circular movement of his pendulum above his head, rolling it up expertly before making a little reverence towards Zaveid.

After that, Dezel stood up again and took a deep breath, because even when the show had been rather short the movements that he had done required a high level of concentration that resulted as tiring as a proper physical training.

“So? Say something already”, Dezel snapped after a moment of silence, and he insulted himself internally when realizing that he was nervous while waiting for Zaveid’s verdict. Damn, why did he still care so much about what that idiot thought?

“Well…”, Zaveid began, and to Dezel’s surprised his tone was serious, “I have to admit that you've come up with rather impressive movements”

When hearing that, Dezel was about to smile with triumph, but at that moment Zaveid spoke again.

"But that's not enough, and your performance in general has been weak"

Dezel frowned.

"What do you mean with _weak_?", he said, with a mix of confusion and irritation. He didn’t like that word one bit because it made him remember things of his past that he preferred to forget.

"As I've said your movements are good", Zaveid continued while standing up from the mini-platform again in order to approach Dezel, "extremely good in fact. But there's something that you're clearly lacking"

"Oh...", Dezel said with a sarcastic tone while crossing his arms, "then illuminate me, master: what do I lack?"

After a brief pause Zaveid finally answered.

"Passion", Dezel had to suppress a gulp when Zaveid spelled that simple word, "even when your performance is technically perfect and you've managed to improve your movements and create new ones, it's evident that you're not enjoying while performing"

Dezel exhaled a snort.

"Well, excuse me if I've lost my 'passion' as you've said, but to perform night after night in front of a public that could not care less about what I do is enough to dishearten anyone"

"I know", Dezel is surprised when hearing Zaveid's tender tone, "I know that these years have been hard for you"

 _No, you don’t know, you weren’t here_ , Dezel thought, but he managed to stop those words before they escaped his mouth.

After all he had promised himself that he would make an effort to accept Zaveid again, and a first step so that could happen was to stop reproaching him to have left. Although deep inside he couldn't help to keep feeling resentment.

"But don't worry, Dezel-chan", Zaveid added recovering his usual nonchalant tone, "I'll help you with this"

“O-oi, what are you doing?”, Dezel jumped, startled when feeling Zaveid situate just behind him to place both of his hands over his shoulders.

“Helping you to relax”, Zaveid said simply while beginning to massage Dezel’s shoulder blades with a rotating movement of his thumbs, “don’t tell me that you have forgotten this technique: Lafarga used it a lot with us”

“O-of course I remember”, Dezel said with a tone that sounded more breathless that he would have liked, “but I don’t know why this is going to help me with…”

Dezel managed not to let out a satisfied whine by biting his bottom lip with force. The massages had always been his weak point, and Zaveid never hesitated to exploit that knowledge multiple times in the past, to the point that Lafarga ended forbidden them to use that technique just before the shows because several times a simple massage ended evolving in something way more physical that caused both of them to end more tired than when they had begun.

And of course, remembering that was not helping Dezel relax but just the contrary.

“Wow, you’re way too tense”, Zaveid whispered just in his ear suddenly, causing Dezel to suffer a shiver, “if you want this to work you have to stay relaxed. Trying to force things will be worse”

Dezel blushed intensely. Damn, he didn’t know if that idiot had chosen those words on purpose but they were awfully familiar to the ones he heard the first time that they…

“Dezel-chan, your ears are red…”, Zaveid commented with a casual tone while leaning his chin on Dezel’s shoulder, and this one could clearly felt the way the older man was smiling teasingly, “what’s wrong? Don’t tell me that doing this to you is making you think about dirty things…”

Dezel gritted his teeth while blushing even more when hearing Zaveid’s obviously-fake confused tone. Now he was sure: the bastard was doing that on purpose.

“Tsk, I’ve been an idiot by thinking that you really wanted to do something to help me”, he snapped with frustration while trying to separate from Zaveid, but this one stopped him from doing that by hugging him from behind, enclosing his powerful arms around his waist, and Dezel felt his heart skip a beat because he had expected a laugh or a teasing comment as a reaction, not that unexpected tender gesture.

“Fine, fine, I get it. I’ll stop with my sexual innuendos when we are working so don’t get angry, okay?”

Against his will, Dezel found himself fighting for not letting out a resigned chuckle when hearing Zaveid’s tone, that was half-apologetic and half-teasing.

“Does that mean that you’re planning to keep using them the rest of the time?”, Dezel commented with irony, making Zaveid began to laugh widely.

“Oh, come on, Dezel-chan, let this old man have at least one of his hobbies”

Dezel snorted.

“So now one of your hobbies is to make my life impossible?”

“Nope, just to tease you to no end”

This time Dezel couldn’t suppress a short laugh that was immediately followed by Zaveid’s one.

“You’re exasperating”, Dezel snapped, but his tone was way softer than his words.

“It’s part of my charm”, Zaveid replied while finally letting Dezel go, and this one was surprised to discover that Zaveid had been hugging him during all their conversation and that he had been okay with it. In fact, he hadn’t even realized that they were still embraced until Zaveid had decided to release him.

Dezel suppressed a gulp. Damn, not even an hour had passed since he had promised himself not to let his guard down when Zaveid was around but he had just done it without noticing.

Well, at least it seemed that despite Zaveid’s obvious insinuations he had been sincere when saying that he was not going to do anything like kissing him again until Dezel allowed him to do so, and that was a relief because, deep inside, Dezel knew how difficult had always been for him to resist Zaveid (although of course he would die before saying that aloud).

Yes, it was true that he was still angry with Zaveid and consequently the man’s attempts of seduction could be less effective than usual, and it was true as well that now Dezel had way more self-control than five-years ago, since at that time he was just seventeen when he began to date Zaveid and consequently his hormones were a little crazy, but still he couldn’t lie to himself: the way he reacted when Zaveid was close couldn’t be mistaken.

Fortunately, he was reasonable enough to listen to his head, that was crying him to act like an adult and to refrain certain embarrassing impulses, over his body, that was clearly suggesting him the contrary, so with a little of luck he would be clever enough to avoid something stupid.

Like falling completely in love with Zaveid again as he had done more than five years ago.

“Okay, kid, now jokes apart: relax”

Hearing Zaveid speaking suddenly while beginning with the massage again caused Dezel to let out a rather undignified whine, and although for a moment Dezel feared Zaveid’s reaction this one pretended not to have heard anything, although Dezel could feel the undeniable tension that had settled on Zaveid’s body for just a tiny moment when that sound escaped his mouth. And maybe it was his imagination but Zaveid’s voice when speaking again was a little ragged, as if he was making an effort to keep control.

“Try not to think about anything”, Zaveid didn’t stop massaging Dezel’s shoulders and back while talking, and to Dezel’s surprise he found himself getting gradually more and more relaxed, “your movements are forced sometimes because your arms and back are tense while performing, and you’re tense because you’re thinking about the people who don’t care about your show instead of focusing on the ones who are interested”

“Sometimes the ones who are interested are practically non-existent”, Dezel replied, and he exhaled a soft ‘ouch’ when Zaveid applied extra pressure on his lower back.

“Come on, Dezel-chan”, Zaveid commented with a knowing tone, “I know that you haven’t forgotten Lafarga’s motto”

“Tsk, how could I? Lailah is always repeating it”

Zaveid laughed when hearing Dezel’s annoyed tone.

“Well, then you know already that it doesn’t matter how many people come to see you: as long as there is one person liking the show, you can’t afford to disappoint your public”

“Yeah, and what happens when there isn’t anyone who is interested?”, Dezel insisted, because sometimes he was deadly sure that not even one person was paying attention to them.

“There will always be at least one person that will like your show”, just when Dezel was about to protest Zaveid stopped his movements and made him be facing him again in order to tap his chest with his finger, “and in your case, I can assure you that there have always been two certain ladies that hadn’t stopped observing you performances with great interest”

Dezel raised his eyebrows surprised, not expecting that answer, and a wave of guiltiness invaded him when realizing how right Zaveid was, because during all that time Rose and Lailah had been there, supporting him, putting up with his insufferable behavior when he got frustrated and always encouraging him to keep going, and despite all their disputes not even once they had missed one of his shows, and not even they had stopped caring about him.

After a brief pause Dezel exhaled a deep breath, and he was about to use his hat to cover his face but before he could do that Zaveid stole it with a fast movements.

“Oi, bring that back, bastard!”, Dezel exclaimed.

“Sorry, kid”, Zaveid said with a teasing tone while putting Dezel’s hat on his head, “but I’m not giving it back until you show me a performance worth of you”

After a couple of more unsuccessful attempts of recovering his hat (or better said: Lafarga’s hat) Dezel accepted his defeat.

“Tsk, alright, you win this time”, Dezel exclaimed while grabbing his pendulum again, “but you better train as well because I remind you that Rose wants us to prepare a combined show, so we are together in this”

Zaveid exhaled a chuckle.

“I like how that last part sounds”, he said with a tone that sounded so incredibly sincere that Dezel gulped, “okay then, Dezel-chan, let’s train. Together”

And again, Dezel felt his heart began to beat a little crazily when hearing Zaveid spell that last word with way more intensity than the rest of the sentence.

* * *

“Guys~!”, Rose said with a lilting tone while entering the big top three hours later, finding Dezel and Zaveid still practicing in order to coordinate his movements,  “lunch is ready, so you can take a break if you want”

“Oh, thanks for the warning Rose-chan. Perfect timing: I was beginning to get tired”

If Dezel had some strength left he would have hit Zaveid without hesitation, because damn if the bastard’s breathing didn’t sound perfectly fine, as if he had just been doing a light training.

“Dezel, are you okay?”, Rose commented with a worried tone, “you seem about to collapse”

“ _I’m fine_ ”, Dezel snorted with a sulking tone before putting his pendulum on his pocket again, “it’s not my fault that this idiot has the stamina of a monster”

“Well, if I remember correctly you’ve never complained about my endurance…”

Zaveid left the sentence hanging and this time it took Dezel a moment to catch the hiding meaning in Zaveid’s words.

“ _You_ …”, Dezel said with a threatening tone, his cheeks bright red.

“Oi, oi…”, Zaveid said putting his hands in front of him as a defensive way, “you’ve said that it was fine to tease you as long as we weren’t working”

“ _I haven’t said anything about that_! And don’t bother to hide the laughter, Rose, I can hear you perfectly”

When hearing that Rose stopped with her attempts of remaining serious and began to laugh to her heart content, and Dezel was too tired to do anything more than exhale a resigned sigh.

Just a couple of minutes later they arrived at the tent where they used to have the meals to find Lailah already there.

“Dezel-san, Zaveid-san, please take a sit!”, she said with her usual enthusiastic tone while signaling the bench in front of her.

“Are you seriously planning to eat here?”, Dezel said with disbelief, “we aren’t going to fit: this tent is too small for seven people”

“Oh, don’t worry”, Rose said sitting next to Lailah, forcing Dezel and Zaveid to sit together, a little cramped, “Mikleo, Sorey and Edna have already eaten”

“How mean! They could have waited for us”, Zaveid said with a certain offended tone.

“Well, Edna-san was the only going who planned to eat first because there was something that she had to do at Goddodin”, Lailah explained, “but Mikleo and Sorey decided to eat sooner as well in order to accompany her”

 Dezel frowned with confusion.

“And why did Edna want to go to Goddodin?”

Before any of the girls could answer that they didn’t had any idea, Zaveid exhaled a resigned sigh.

“That girl…Why does she always have to do everything by herself?”, he protested, but there was fondness on his voice.

Everyone turned to look at him with surprise.

“Zaveid-san, do you know what she has gone to do?”

“If that’s the case you better speak now”

“Easy, Dezel-chan, I wasn’t going to hide it from you”, he said with a conciliatory tone, bumping his arm softly against Dezel’s one, “remember that we’ve commented that Hedalf had been suborning people in the cities so that they weren’t going to watch the Windriders?”, everyone nodded, “well…I think that she has gone to fix that”

“What?!”, Rose exclaimed, “but that can be dangerous! What will happen if Hedalf has spies on the city or something like that and discovers what Edna is doing?”

“There aren’t any spies”, Zaveid said with confidence, “before coming here Edna-chan and I made sure that the village was clean so there’s no risk. Besides, remember that it’s Edna we’re talking about: in case that there were any spies, they should be the ones in being afraid”

Lailah chuckled softly.

“I agree with you but still how does she plan to stop the bribes?”

“We don’t plan to stop them”, Zaveid explained, “right now the only thing that matters is that the Windriders Circus becomes famous again, and in order to do that people have to begin to talk about us again”

“Thank you, genius, we know that already”, Dezel said with sarcasm, “but if people doesn’t go to watch us because Hedalf is bribing them how the hell are we going to gain popularity?”

“Because…”, Zaveid continued, his tone extremely patient despite Dezel’s rude words, “…what Edna-chan is going to suggest is to give a free performance for all the village”

Lailah, Rose and even Dezel shouted at the same time a loud ‘WHAAAAAT?!’.

“ALL the village?!”, Rose’s tone came out way more high-pitched than usual.

“Oh my god, Zaveid-san, are you being serious?”, Lailah said, her voice coming out a little muffled since she had placed both of her hands in front of her mouth.

“Deadly serious, ladies”, Zaveid smiled widely.

“And why the hell hadn’t you told us about your plan beforehand?!”, Dezel snapped, still in shock.

“Because we were afraid that you said no”, Zaveid said bluntly, not showing a shred of guiltiness when speaking, “so like this we are sure that you were going to accept”

Dezel’s mouth fell completely opened when hearing Zaveid’s shameless words, and his expression had to be incredibly hilarious because the older man burst out laughing.

“Oh, come on, Dezel-chan. Don’t tell me that you don’t miss a proper public while performing”

“That’s not the point”, Dezel exclaimed, but before he could keep protesting Lailah intervened.

“Well, despite the sudden news I think that it’s an excellent opportunity for our circus”

“Yeah, besides although we do the show for free we can always ask the people for some of their generosity when we finish”, Rose added, her eyes beginning to shine, “oh damn, now I’m excited for this night!”

“But we haven’t trained enough”, Dezel protested, “what if we do such a lame performance that our popularity decreases even more?”

“That’s not going to happen”

Zaveid’s confident tone made Dezel exhale a frustrated sigh.

“And why the hell are you so sure of that?”

“Because we are going to perform together”, Zaveid said simply, “and remember that we aren’t just incredibly compatible in bed, we’ve always been able to coordinate well when working together… _ouch!_ D-Dezel-chan, please, don’t grab my hair so hard… _OUCH_!”

At that moment the entrance of the tent opened to show Edna, Sorey and Mikleo, who found Lailah and Rose laughing while Dezel, blushing furiously, pulled Zaveid’s hair with force, the older man showing a rather teasing smile despite the painful expression that adorned his face.

“I’m not going to ask”, Edna commented with an imperturbable tone while Mikleo and Sorey looked the scene with curiosity.

“Perfect timing Edna-chan”, Zaveid commented, finally managing to set his hair free from Dezel’s tight grip, “I’ve just told them the plan for tonight”

“How did it go, Edna?”, Rose asked with expectation.

“Well, at first the chief was rather reluctant to let us do it”, Edna admitted, “but thanks to Sorey’s powers of conviction at the end he had accepted”

“Hey, I’ve helped too”, Mikleo said with an offended tone, “if it wasn’t for me you would have hit the chief with your umbrella the first time that he rejected the suggestion”

“Tsk, that was a minor detail”

“A minor detail?!”

Sorey laughed when seeing his friend so offended.

“Come on, Mikleo, don’t get angry”, Sorey said with a conciliatory tone, “what matters is that we are allowed to perform”

“Exactly, Sorey-san, that’s the most important”, Lailah said with enthusiasm before turning to look at Rose, “let’s go then Rose-san: since there’s going to be a lot of public we can’t disappoint them!”

“You’re right”, Rose agreed with a wide smile while standing up.

“Hey, where are you going? You have barely eaten”, Dezel commented.

“We’ll eat something later”, Rose said with a dismissive gesture, following Lailah out of the tent, “but right now there’s something much more important that Lailah and I have to take care at all costs”

And then, without saying anything more the two women disappeared, leaving the rest completely confused.

“I didn’t know that they were going to do a combined show as well”, Sorey commented with confusion.

“Me neither”, Mikleo added with the same tone, “maybe we should ask them about it…”

“Leave them be”, Edna intervened, taking the place where Rose had been sitting until then and beginning to eat her food, “or you’ll get involved in their scheming”

“Scheming?”, Dazel asked with confusion, but Edna completely ignored his indirect question and kept eating.

“Do you want to join us as well?”, Zaveid asked Mikleo and Sorey, “Lailah-chan is famous for her lack of measure when cooking so there’s enough to eat if you’re still hungry”

“Thanks, but we have already eaten a lot”, Sorey said with a grateful tone, “besides, since Rose is busy with Lailah right now Mikleo and I will train a little on our own”

“Okay. Try not to extenuate yourselves a lot during your _training_ …”, Zaveid commented casually, causing Mikleo to half-close his eyes at him, not sure if there was a subtle insinuation on Zaveid’s words (of course there was) while Sorey simply nodded with a smile, completely unaware of his friend’s sudden tension.

“Don’t worry, we won’t. Let’s go, Mikleo!”

And with that, the two boys left the tent.

“Seriously, would it kill you to stop teasing everyone around you?”

Dezel’s resigned tone caused Zaveid to chuckle.

“Sorry, I can’t resist: that kid is even easier to tease than you”, Zaveid commented with amusement, exhaling another ‘ouch’ when Dezel hit his ribs with his elbow.

“Yes, he is too innocent”, Edna said, “but he learns incredibly fast and he is very hard-working”

“Wow, Edna-chan praising someone. That kid must be incredibly good”, Zaveid said honestly impressed, “you should tell him that”

“Tsk. No way…”, Edna muttered to herself.

“Oh, look at our little Edna-chan, entering her cute-tsundere mode… _ouch_! How the hell have you managed to grab your umbrella so fast?!”

Dezel exhaled a resigned sigh.

“You never learn, don’t you?”

Zaveid smiled widely, while avoiding easily the hits that a rather red Edna was throwing at him.

“Hehe, it would be too boring if I did that, don’t you think…? ARGH!”

This time it was Dezel who smiled when feeling Zaveid bending over when Edna used her foot to hit him under the table, and for the way Zaveid’s was whining it was really easy to deduce where Edna had managed to hit him.

“Do you still think like that, Zaveid- _chan_?”, Dezel said teasingly, causing Zaveid to chuckle breathlessly.

“Of course. As long as I manage to put a smile on your face with my behavior, it will be worth it”

“Tsk, idiot”, Dezel snapped while resuming his meal, but the color of his cheeks betrayed that Zaveid’s words had affected him more than he was willing to show.

* * *

 “Rose-san, relax: you’re going to do it great!”

The girl laughed nervously.

“Sorry but it’s been a while since we had such a public”

At the end, Edna and Zaveid’s plan about making a free show had worked as fine as they had expected and the entire village of Gododdin was there, waiting for them to leave the backstage, and despite everyone’s initial enthusiasm when discovering that for the first time in years (on in Sorey and Mikleo’s case for the first time in their lives) there was going to be a huge audience, now that the moment had come nervousness had finally reached the group.

In fact, Dezel was trying to avoid conversations at any cost because he feared that his voice trembled when speaking and betrayed how nervous (almost hysterical) he was.

“Dezel-chan…”

The named one suppressed a shocked cry just in time when hearing Zaveid’s whisper just in his ear.

“Bastard, are you planning to kill me?!”, he hissed, feeling his heart about to explode inside his chest.

Zaveid chuckled with amusement.

“Oi, oi, there is no reason to be nervous after having spent all the afternoon training for this”, he said with a reassuring tone before adding towards Mikleo and Sorey direction, “and that goes for you two as well, kids. You should relax and be happy for having such a nice public during your first performance”

“A-and we are happy”, Mikleo said with a tone that sounded extremely high-pitched, “b-but what if I make a huge mistake out there and I ruin the performance?”

“That’s not going to happen, Mikleo”, Sorey settled a hand over his friend’s shoulder, a hand that was shaking lightly despite the confidence on his voice, “besides, even if we make a mistake we are not alone” 

“Exactly”, Lailah said with a smile, “you have Rose-san and Edna-san to cover for you”

Mikleo threw a side glance towards Edna, expecting her typical sharp comment, but this time it didn’t come and the girl limited to nod at him with a confident expression on her face that caused Mikleo to blush lightly, grateful for the girl’s silent support.

“Okay, it’s time”, Rose exhaled a deep breath before turning to look at the rest with a smile, “get ready, guys. We have a show to do”

“That’s the spirit, Rose-chan”, Zaveid winked at her, “don’t forget to introduce me awesomely”

Rose chuckled softly, some of her tension disappearing from her shoulders, and after exhaling another deep breath she began to walk towards the stage, causing the incessant murmur of the public to decrease a little.

“Her legs are trembling”, Mikleo commented with a slight worried tone.

“She will be okay”, Lailah commented, “Rose-san is the kind of person who shines even more when tension is involved”

A couple of seconds later Rose reached the mini-platform. She stood over it, looking at the public with renovated confidence, and after taking the last deep breath she began to talk with a voice that came out a little trembling during the first words but that immediately became confident and powerful.

“L-Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome once more to the Windriders Circus! If you’ve already been here I hope that we manage to entertain you again, and if you are new I hope that we’re able to impress you enough so you want to come to visit us again!”

Dezel gulped. He had heard that speech so many times that he had memorized it, to the point that at some point during those years he stopped paying attention to it, just focusing on hearing his name in order to perform and nothing more.

But now he found himself unable to stop listening to every one of Rose’s words, and unable to remove the tension that had settled on his stomach and his chest, because he knew that now everything was different, that the show that they were about to give to the public was different, and that depending on the results the Windriders could begin to recover their dying glory.

“Dezel-chan…”

Again, the named one jumped a little when hearing his name whispered so suddenly.

“What now?”, he hissed again with a certain annoyed tone, turning to the side to be ‘looking’ at Zaveid.

“Let’s make a bet: if we gather more than 50,000 galds tonight I’ll win, otherwise it’s your victory”

Dezel remained silent for a moment before snorting.

“I think that you’re horribly confident about our success”

Zaveid chuckled.

“Yeah, of course I am”, he enclosed and arm around his shoulders, “or should I remind you how much the public liked when Lafarga, you and I did our show?”

Dezel gulped. Of course that Zaveid didn’t have to remind him that. He had never forgotten the incredible feeling of having an enthusiastic crowd applauding them, the feeling of being able to move hundredths of people just with the movements of his pendulum, the feeling of knowing that they were able to make people happy with just three minutes of show.

“That was a long time ago”, Dezel ended saying with a voice raspier than usual, “I don’t know if I will be able to…”

“ _We_ will be able to do it”, Zaveid interrupted him, his voice sounding incredibly confident, “we are together in this, remember? And that’s guaranteed success. But if you still think that we won’t be able…”, Dezel felt Zaveid’s challenging smile on his next words, “…you can always bet against me”

Dezel snorted again, but this time with amusement.

“And what will happen if I win?”, he asked with curiosity.

“I’ll stop teasing you for a whole day”, Zaveid’s promised.

“Mmm, I have to admit that it sounds interesting”, Dezel said, before adding with a suspicious tone, “and if you win?”

Zaveid laughed softly.

“Easy, kid: I’m not going to ask you to do anything sexual, although I wouldn’t mind it one bit”, since Dezel was too busy getting red, Zaveid could talk again without being interrupted or hit, “let’s see, if I win…”, a mischievous smile appeared on Zaveid’s face, “…you’ll have to perform shirtless like me during the next show”

Dezel opened his mouth to protest but at that time he realized that during his conversation with Zaveid, Rose had already introduced Lailah, Sorey and Mikleo and now they were at the stage as well, situated just behind Rose.

“…and finally, the last performance of the night will be in charge of the men who were used to be called the ‘Wind Seraphs’ and that finally are united again to impress the public with their awesome pendulum techniques: let’s give them a loud applause!!”

“So, Dezel-chan? We have a bet?”, Zaveid whispered behind Dezel while this one began to walk towards the stage, his breathing more uneven than usual.

“Okay, okay, we have a bet!”, Dezel hissed, and he could hear Zaveid chuckling triumphantly behind him before they two got into position next to the rest. Damn, that man was incredible, how could he be so relaxed?

However, Dezel didn’t have time to envy Zaveid’s calm too much because at that moment Rose announced Lailah’s show so just the long-haired woman remained on the stage while the rest came back to the backstage to wait for his turn.

“And now our first performer: Lailah ‘the Pure’!”

When the applauses finally stopped Lailah made a little reverence before finally starting.

She began elaborating some origami figurines that she showed to the public with delicate and confident gestures. When she had created enough of them, she moved them in the air by using threads that were invisible for the public while executing circular dancing movements with the rhythm of the music that Rose had settled just after announcing her.

Then, at some point, the paper figurines began to ignite for real, making Lailah look as if she was dancing with fire itself, the ignited figurines accompanying every one of her movements with dangerous precision. Finally, with a rapid movement Lailah joined all her papers figurines together and when she extended her arms again the fire disappeared to show the origami figurines in perfect state, as if they hadn’t been burned in the first place, and like that the show of the Lailah ‘the Pure’ ended with a giant applause.

“Wow, she is as spectacular as always”

Dezel felt a pang of jealously against his will, not just for Zaveid’s honest and impressed reaction but also because even when he remembered perfectly Lailah’s show, now he was unable to see it again.

“I find funny that she keeps using that alias”, Zaveid added with amusement, “I’ve always thought that ‘the Queen of Fire’ would suit her better”

“Rose and Edna have kept their alias as well”

Zaveid turned to look at Dezel with curiosity.

“Does that mean that you don’t? I’ve always liked yours: Dezel, ‘of the Green Eyes’”

Dezel snorted.

 “Since my eyes aren’t green anymore I think that to be called that would a little stupid.  Dezel of ‘the Unclouded Eyes’ seems way more appropriate”

Dezel’s tone came out bitterer than he had intended, causing Zaveid to tense a little next to him. However, just when Dezel was about to apologize because he knew that Zaveid hadn’t said that with any bad intention, the older man spoke with a casual tone.

“You know? Green or not your eyes are still the prettiest that I’ve ever seen, so maybe you should think about changing your name for Dezel ‘of the Pretty Eyes’…”

“Like Hell if I’m going to be called that!”, Dezel snapped, causing Zaveid to begin to laugh for Dezel’s heated reaction, and since Rose had just presented the next performers Dezel had to swallow the insult that he had been about to said to Zaveid for having teased him.

‘Early-Bloomer’ Edna and Mikleo ‘the Enforcer’ began to perform separately: she making jugglers with her umbrella while Mikleo did the same with his staff, but as the rhythm of the music become faster they began to mix movements, throwing in the air their respective objects high enough to have time to execute some rapid combined dance steps before grabbing their objects again. As Milkleo was fearing, one of the times he missed the throw and he was about to let his shaft fall on the ground, but Edna was fast enough to grab her umbrella _and_ Mikleo’s shaft at the same time, returning it to him with such naturalness that it seemed that everything had been part of the show.  

When they finished they received a rather nice applause as well that caused Mikleo to blush brightly while showing an idiotic cute smile before finally joining Lailah at the other side of the backstage in order to give way to Sorey, ‘the Shepperd’ and Rose ‘the Rose’ performance.

“Certainly Lafarga wasn’t very imaginative when assigning us our names”, Zaveid commented with a chuckle, and Dezel couldn’t avoid a hint of a smile when remembering the way his deceased master always doubted a lot when trying to come up with new names for their performers, ending with alias extremely obvious or almost stupid.

“No, he wasn’t”, Dezel agreed, “although yours was the worst of all: Zaveid ‘the Ladykiller’”

Zaveid had to suppress a laugh because at that moment Rose had begun with the third presentation.

“Hey, at first I loved that title. He described me perfectly…”, suddenly Dezel felt something caress his cheek softly, and he realized that it was Zaveid’s finger, “...until certain someone made that fantastic alias lose all its meaning”

Zaveid’s tone was so incredibly honest and it carried so many feelings on it that that Dezel found himself gulping, unable to reply anything, and in fact at that moment he felt incredibly tempted to let Zaveid’s finger keep traveling down his jaw, since it was not the first time that, in the past, Zaveid had initiated that same tender gesture to end grabbing his chin, and forcing him to raise his head a little in order to share a passionate and dominant kiss.

However, at that precise moment the music that announced Rose and Sorey’s actuation began, surprising the two men and causing Zaveid to immediately stop touching Dezel. And this one insulted himself internally when feeling a wave of disappointment travel through his body.

Sorey and Rose show was rather good as well. The same way that Edna and Mikleo, they began separately, showing the public what they were able to do with their respective weapons, and after a couple of minutes of individual exhibition they began to combine attacks that mostly consisted on Rose throwing her daggers at Sorey and he avoiding or hitting them back in a way that she could recover them again with confident and precise movements, and although one of the times Rose had to make an extra cartwheel in the air in order to catch a dagger that Sorey had thrown a little poorly, she managed to grab it while following the rhythm of the music, making the public applaud even more enthusiastically.

After finishing the show, it finally hit Dezel that he and Zaveid were next, and suddenly he realized that thanks to Zaveid, who had been speaking plus teasing him all the time, all his initial nervousness had almost evaporated.

Damn, could Zaveid have been giving conversation on purpose in order to calm him down?

“Okay, Dezel-chan…”, Dezel came back to reality when Zaveid spoke, “it’s our turn. Are you ready?”

Zaveid’s voice sounded enthusiastic, showing how much he wanted to perform, and to Dezel’s surprise he discovered that, for the first time in a really long time, he was feeling the familiar tension that always appeared just before a show because of a mix of fear and excitation. A tension that had nothing to do with the one that he had been feeling until then before every performance and that it was due to the frustration of doing things for nothing. And that feeling that he was experimenting now and that was making his body tremble with anticipation and his heart beat slightly faster, was something that he had been missing during all those years.

“Tsk, of course I am”, Dezel commented with a purposely superior tone that made Zaveid smile before beginning to walk towards the stage where Rose was announcing them.

“And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, here it goes our last performance of the night: Dezel, ‘of the Unclouded Eyes’ and Zaveid ‘of the Promise’!”

After hearing his name Zaveid immediately began to wave his hand to the public, effectively causing that numerous girls and women began to squeal in delight while Dezel suppressed an annoyed sigh.

“You aren’t going to get tired of doing that, right?”, he said through gritted teeth so just Zaveid heard him, getting into position to face the public next the older man, “and what’s with that new alias: Zaveid ‘of the Promise’?”, Dezel added unable to hide his curiosity, extracting his pendulum from his pocket in order to adopt his initial stance.

“Maybe I’ll tell you one day”, Zaveid said while mimicking Dezel’s posture, his body turned a little to the side and his legs slightly flexed, the pendulum grabbed between his two hands and one of his arms extended in front of him, pointing to the public, “but now...”, Zaveid’s smile could be heard in the next words he pronounced, “…we have a public to entertain”

As if it had been calculated, just after those words had escaped Zaveid’s mouth Rose turned the music on, so Dezel decided that he would have time to think about the meaning of Zaveid’s alias later: now they had a show to perform.

During the first thirty seconds, Dezel a Zaveid took opportunity of the rapid chorus that sounded at the beginning of the song in order to introduce themselves to the public with a reverence, walking slowly to opposite sides while moving their pendulums in a slow circular movement, putting some distance between them since they needed some space in order to manipulate their pendulums comfortably.

When the chorus finished, they began to use their pendulums individually, showing the public his individual skills the same way the rest had done before, taking care to not repeat the movements that the other one was making.

They did that during almost a complete minute.

And then, finally, the rhythm of the music changed to a one more intense and fast and their combined show began:

From then on, the movements that Dezel and Zaveid did were coordinated, and they were faster, wider and riskier, since sometimes they dare throw the pendulum towards the public, recovering it just in time so it didn’t hurt anyone, effectively causing the people to cry with surprise, and Dezel could swear that the kid who literally cried: ‘How cool!’ was the same kid that had said exactly the same thing that same morning when Dezel had purposely scared that annoying woman.

Also, Zaveid and Dezel began to change positions from time to time, always without stopping using their pendulums, and the climax took place when they ended facing the other one: Dezel using his pendulum as a whip against Zaveid to ‘force’ him to avoid his attacks by jumping, rolling or simply stepping aside and Zaveid doing the same but with piercing attacks, throwing the pendulum just in front of him with an added rotating movement that made the attack incredibly dangerous if it wasn’t well avoided. Of course, Dezel knew that attack extremely well since a lot of times he had ended with a cut on his cheeks when trying to dodge it, so now he could do it easily with almost no effort, but still the knowledge that a false step could result in a rather respectable wound was enough to make him not lower his guard, his blood boiling with excitation.

Then, after almost another minute, the song became calm again, allowing them to recover their previous positions to make a couple of simple movements before making another reverence, and like that the show of the ‘Wind Seraphs’ ended.  

After they finished, there was a silence that just lasted some seconds but that for Dezel was like hours, and when after that brief but intense pause the public stood up at once on their locations in order to applaud them while crying with enthusiasm Dezel had to make a terrible effort to push back the giant lump that had settled on his throat.

Damn, he had to admit that he hated noisy people but damn if he hadn’t missed the sound of that loud and happy crowd.

At that moment he felt a heavy hand settling on his shoulder.

“Let’s go Dezel-chan”, Zaveid’s voice sounded unusually tender and touched, and Dezel felt better when discovering that he wasn’t the only one to be too emotional for being able to perform again like that, so he simply nodded since he wasn’t sure that he could keep his voice firm in case of speaking.

The audience’s applauses that hadn’t stopped for even one second since Dezel and Zaveid finished become even louder when the rest of the Windriders appeared again in order to situate in a line in front of the public, and when Rose talked again in order to give the final speech her voice sounded slightly trembling as well.

“And that was all for tonight show, Ladies and Gentleman”, she said when the public calmed down a little, “I hope that you have enjoyed yourselves and we hope to see you again during future performances. As you know, tonight show was free but if someone is willing to contribute to our circus in any way it would be greatly appreciated”

After Rose said the last words another silence took place, and Dezel could detect immediately the tension that had assaulted the whole crowd.

However, just when it seemed that the night was going to end like that a general murmur began to sound and suddenly an old man, who Dezel deduced was the chief of Goddodin, spoke.

“My most sincere apologies”, the man’s voice became gradually louder indicating Dezel that he was approaching the stage, “during all this time I’ve been accepting Lord Hedalf’s money because our village’s economy was in a really poor condition, since the animals around us became crazy and stopped our merchants from going to the city to trade, so even if I didn’t trust Lord Hedalf and even if I saw unfair to forbid my people to go to watch you, the money that he offered us was a huge help”

Everyone remained silent, because even if they knew that it was Hedalf’s fault that Goddodins’s economy had worsened in the first place, they didn’t have direct evidence to accuse him. Not yet at least.

“However…”, the man approached Edna and grabbed her hands with reverence, making the girl open her eyes at her maximum, “…thanks to this rude but extremely charming lady we’ve learnt how to cure the animals, and thanks to you all…”, the man turned to look at the whole group, “…for the first time in quite a long time I’ve been able to see my people smile again, and that’s something that I’m not going to forget”

Dezel heard Lailah and Rose gulping and Edna clicking her tongue, and he could perfectly picture them with their eyes bright because of the emotion.

“So from now on we’ll stop accepting that man’s bribes”, the chief stated with a determined voice, before adding with an incredibly grateful one, “thank you, Windriders: you’re not just an incredible circus. You’re also incredible people”

After saying that, there was a brief pause and suddenly Zaveid spoke just in Dezel’s ear.

“Dezel-chan, take off your hat and put it in front of you upside down”

Dezel frowned confused but obeyed, and then he felt that something had been just deposited inside it.

“Thank you for such a fantastic show. I’ve liked it a lot”, the chief said, and then finally Dezel understood that the chief had just deposited some galds inside the hat, and that seemed to be the indication for the rest of the crowd to do the same as well because in barely a minute there was a giant line of people willing to contribute and express their gratitude.

“You’ve been amazing! I’m sorry for not having come here before: we didn’t want to cause problems to the chief”

“I’ve loved your performance, Lailah ‘the Pure’! How do you manage to use the fire without getting burn?!”

“‘Early-Bloomer’ Edna! Mikleo ‘the Enforcer’! Please, an autograph! Your exhibition has been awesome too!”

“And Sorey ‘the Shepperd’ and Rose ‘the Rose’ show have been incredible! I seriously thought that she was going to end hurting him!”

“Ne, ne, Dezel ‘of the Unclouded Eyes’: can you teach me to throw the pendulum like that? It’s soooo cool!!”

“The ‘Wind Seraphs’ are simply brilliant! And they are both so hot~!!”

“Zaveid-san~! Dezel-san~! Please, _please_ , tell me that at least one of you is single!”

Dezel felt himself blushing when hearing a young woman say that with an extremely embarrassing needing tone, but before he could babble anything back Zaveid spoke.

“Sorry, ladies, we aren’t free. Buuut if we manage to collect 50,000 galds tonight, during the next show you’ll be able to enjoy the view of Dezel’s muscles”

“HEY! That’s cheating!!”, Dezel exclaimed while the girl exhaled a high-pitched cry before turning to shout at her female friends.

“Girls!! Come here right now!! If we pay more, Dezel ‘of the Unclouded Eyes’ is going to get naked during the next show!!”

“ _Naked_?! What the Hell?! I haven’t said anything like that!!”, but despite Dezel’s desperate words it was too late and a dozen of ladies had approached him in order to deposit more galds on his hat, making it almost overflow.

“Dezel-san, please, refrain yourself from selling your body in order to obtain more benefits”

 “Shame on you, Dezel! I could have expected that from Zaveid but to discover that you are the same as well…”

“That’s what happens when two bakas get together”

If Dezel’s hat hadn’t been full of money, he would have thrown it towards the idiot women that were laughing at him, but even if he was going to have a little conversation with Zaveid later for having put him in trouble the truth was that it had been a while since the last time he had so much fun.

After some moments, the hat was completely full so they had to search for another bag, that ended full as well, and just when all the public seemed about to finally leave the big top Rose’s voice sounded again over all the noise.

 “Oh, one last thing Ladies and Gentlemen!”, Rose said suddenly standing on the mini-platform again, “if you were so kind could you sit down again, please? It will be just a moment”

“Do you know what is this about?”, Dezel asked the rest, who looked as confused as him with the exception of Edna who looked completely imperturbable, but that wasn’t anything new.

“No idea, kid”, Zaveid said honestly, shaking his head.

Rose waited until everyone was more or less silent before begining to talk.

“Alright, first of all: THANK YOU SO MUCH for your kind generosity and for having come to watch us”, she said, looking at the public with bright eyes, “these years have been rather hard for us as well and you don’t know how much it has meant to us to have such a great public again. You all make that our tiring hours of training are REALLY worth it”

All the crowd began to applaud again with enthusiasm, and almost half-a-minute had to pass until Rose was able to speak again.

“Second: we apologize for not having worked with any animals during this show. As your chief had commented before, we’ve also been having troubles with them and just recently we’ve been learnt how to cure them, so we’ve been unable to train them properly for tonight performance. However, I hope that we’ll be able to offer a proper show involving animals during the following days!”

Another applause took place, and although this time Dezel thought for sure that Rose had stopped speaking, to his surprise the girl had more to say.

“And the last thing: I don’t know if anyone may have watched the Windriders some years ago but if that’s the case then that person will know that there is a certain tradition among the Windriders that consists of singing a song at the end of the show”

There is a surprised murmur among the public, and among the rest of the Windriders as well.

“Wait, is she planning to sing?”, Dezel asked with surprise.

 “See, Mikleo?! I wasn’t imagining things before: I told you that I had heard Rose sing before”

“Alright, alright, you’re right, just don’t hiss just in my ear!”

“Yeah, careful Sorey: ears are an erogenous zone and for the way Mikleo blushes it seems that he is especially sensitive to be touched there…”

“ _Zaveid_!!”

However, before the mortified kid could deny Zaveid’s words Lailah suddenly appeared carrying a guitar to join Rose, making a little reverence towards the public before sitting down on the mini-platform where Rose was standing.

“The Windriders Circus will be here until the end of the week. So if during that time someone would like to hear us sing something particular, please, don’t hesitate in telling us! Tonight, the song that Lailah ‘the Pure’ and I have created is dedicated to all the people who have been hurt by the person they love even when that person didn’t intended to do so”, Rose smiled with nervousness while Lailah began to play some soft chords with her guitar, “I hope that you like it. It’s been a while since the last time I sang so please don’t be too harsh on me”

The public chuckled when hearing Rose’s exaggerated pleading tone, and Dezel was still trying to close his completely opened mouth when Rose began to sing while Lailah accompanied her in some of the verses, their voices as clear and sweat as Dezel remembered.

_Don't know,_

_Don't know if I can do this on my own_

_Why did you have to leave me?_

_It seems_

_I'm losing something deep inside of me_

_Hold on onto me_

_Now I see, now I see_

_Everybody hurts some days_

_It's okay to be afraid_

_Everybody hurts, everybody screams_

_Everybody feels this way and it's okay_

_Ladadadada It's okay_

 

“Dezel…you’re completely red, are you…? Ouch! Mikleo, why have you just hit me?!”

Mikleo rubbed his eyes with patience while Sorey looked at him with confusion, but Dezel was too busy trying to keep his cool, thing that was proven to be incredibly difficult because he could feel Zaveid next to him, and if that was normally enough to make him a little nervous the fact that he was listening to a song that seemed to have been made for him was an extra pressure.

Dezel took a deep breath. For the first time he really regretted that Zaveid wasn’t making one of his typical mocking comments because the sudden tension that had just created between them when the song began was gradually increasing. Well, maybe with a little of luck the song ended evolving in a way that wasn’t so related to his current situation with Zaveid and like that some of the tension would surely disappear…

_It feels_

_Like nothing really matters anymore_

_When you're gone, I can't breathe_

_And I know_

_You never meant to make me feel this way_

_This can't be happening_

_Now I see, now I see_

_Everybody hurts some days_

_It's okay to be afraid_

_Everybody hurts, everybody screams_

_Everybody feels this way and it's okay_

_Ladadadada it's okay_

_Lalalala_

 

Dezel exhaled another deep breath. Nope. It seemed that the song wasn’t going to make the tension disappear. In fact, he had to suppress a flinch when feeling Zaveid change lightly his position while clearing his throat, as if he was suppressing the urge of making a comment.

Damn women. They had done that on purpose for sure…

_So many questions, so much on my mind_

_So many answers I can't find_

_I wish I could turn back the time_

_I wonder why_

_Everybody hurts some days_

_Everybody hurts some days_

_Everybody hurts some days_

_It's okay to be afraid_

_Everybody hurts, everybody screams_

_Everybody feels this way and it's okay_

_Ladadadada it's okay_

_Lalalalala it's okay_

 

When the song finally ended with a great applause, Dezel let out the breath that he hadn’t realized he’d been holding when hearing the last part of the song.

Damn. Damn, what should he do? Was it better to fake obliviousness and pretend that he hadn’t realized that the fucking song has been made for them? Or was it better…?

“Dezel-chan, if there’s something that you want to tell me it’s not necessary to ask Rose-chan and Lailah-chan to help you by using a song”

“WHAT?!”, Dezel shouted without thinking, making some people of the first line to look at him with curiosity and causing to burst out laughing.

“I knew that you were going to react like that”, Zaveid said with a teasing tone, easily avoiding the hit that Dezel threw at him.

“Damn women…”, Dezel muttered to himself, and despite his violent attitude towards he was grateful to the older man because thanks to Zaveid’s teasing comment the awkwardness between them had vanished.

A couple of minutes later, just the Windriders remained in the big top, and although Dezel was tempted to have some words with Lailah and Rose he decided that it would be better to do as if nothing had happened. After all, he wasn’t sure to be able to win a verbal battle against the two women.

“Oh, man, I’m super tired!”, Rose exclaimed while yawning.

“Yes, it’s been a very long but productive day”, Lailah agreed with a tired but happy voice.

“Hey, how much have we won?”, Zaveid asked suddenly turning to Edna and Mikleo, who had begun to count the money, “please, tell me that it’s more than 50,000 galds…”

“Sorry, Zaveid”, Mikleo said after a moment, “we’ve just reached 47,443 galds”

“Damn! We almost reach them…ouch ouch _ouch_!! D-Dezel-chan, please, be more gentle with me!”

“Shut up, idiot! I had almost forgotten that stupid bet but now that I remember you’re going to pay for cheating like that!”

Everyone laughed when Zaveid began to run to avoid Dezel’s hits and hair’s pulls.

“Come on, guys, stop playing: it’s late and we should rest for tomorrow”, Rose commented with a smile.

“Yes, after all we’ll have to get up early to train the animals”, Lailah added, “Sorey-san, Mikleo-san, I’ve prepared you a couple of improvised beds on the tent where we keep the tools. Sorry, but we had to sell the rest of the caravans and just the girl’s caravan and Dezel and Zaveid’s one remain…”

“Wait a minute…”, Dezel said slowly, stopping pursuing Zaveid, “…why have you just said Dezel _and_ Zaveid’s caravan?”

“Well…”, Lailah began with a tone that sounded credibly confused, “…because from now on Zaveid-san is going to sleep with you in your caravan. Just like the old times”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehe, things are finally moving between our main pair :) 
> 
> I estimate that in a couple of chapters the arc of the past will take place and finally we’ll know everything about what happened five years ago :D 
> 
> Regarding this chapter, I hope to keep making the characters ‘in character’ xD, especially during the romantic parts, so if you think that’s the case please don’t hesitate in telling me! Comments, critics or suggestions will be really appreciated ;)


	4. Confusing feelings

“Umh…Dezel-chan, I’m rather sure that the bed is big enough for the two of us sooo…”

“So _nothing_. You better stay where you are or I’ll kill you”

Zaveid exhaled a resigned sigh from the mattress that he had been forced to place on the floor because Dezel absolutely rejected the proposition of sharing the bed.

“Oi, if you’re afraid of me attacking you during the night I promise that I’ll behave. I’ve gotten really good at keeping my sexual desires under control”

“That’s great but the answer is still NO”

“Damn, Dezel-chan, your lack of confidence hurts me deeply… ”

Dezel clicked his tongue when hearing Zaveid’s ironic tone and turned to his side on the bed, his cheeks slightly red with embarrassment because the main reason to force Zaveid to sleep on the floor was not that he didn’t trust him. After all, that day the man had had a lot of opportunities to kiss him again and he had kept his promise of not doing anything.

The main reason was that Dezel also knew that Zaveid would be unable to suppress the temptation of teasing him since they shared too many memories that involved a bed and not precisely for using it for sleeping purposes, and considering how idiot his own body was and how easily he was affected when Zaveid provoked him, he didn’t want to imagine his reaction when feeling Zaveid’s warm body so close.

Dezel gulped, burying his face even more on the pillow, trying to calm his slightly accelerated breathing. No, definitely he couldn’t possible take the risk. Damn, he could feel his heart beating frantically in his chest just because he had imagined how it would feel Zaveid’s toned and hard chest against his back and…

At that moment Dezel was about to shout when suddenly the sound of a buckle being removed invaded the room.

“What the hell are you doing?”, Dezel asked with an irritant tone for having been startled.

“I’m removing my pants”, Zaveid answered simply, as if it was the most normal thing to do, “they are a little too tight so it’s very uncomfortable to sleep with them”

Dezel bit his tongue not to reply too sharply, and he was about to try to sleep again when realizing that he hadn’t heard anything that indicated that Zaveid had put other clothes on.

“Zaveid…what are you wearing now?”

Dezel regretted his own words the moments they left his mouth.

“Oh?”, Zaveid’s tone sounded incredibly amused, “wow, Dezel-chan, I didn’t know that  you liked that kind of game…”

“Idiot, it’s not that!”, Dezel exclaimed before clearing his throat, feeling his cheeks burning, “I just didn’t know if Lailah had lent you more clothes besides the ones you were wearing”

“Nope, she hasn’t. But don’t worry, I usually sleep without clothes so there’s no problem”

Dezel clicked his tongue again, pretending not to be affected by the knowledge that a completely naked Zaveid was lying really close to him.

“You better not protest if you catch a cold”, Dezel snapped, making Zaveid chuckle.

“Nah, I don’t think so. I’m feeling rather hot here. And this time I’m not saying it with a double meaning, I swear”

Dezel snorted, trying to hide the soft chuckle that had been about to escape his lips.

“Oi, Dezel-chan…”, Zaveid began after some moments of silence, “can I ask you something?”

“Zaveid, don’t insist: my bed is out of the question”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry, I wasn’t going to insist on that. I’ve already assumed that you don’t want to risk falling into the temptation of having such a hot guy like me sleeping with you”

Dezel had to suppress a gulp when hearing his fears spelled aloud, but fortunately Zaveid had said it as a joke without realizing that he was right. 

“Then what did you want to ask?”, Dezel snapped rudely, and he was surprised when detecting some hesitation on Zaveid’s voice when speaking next even if the man was trying to adopt his usual nonchalant tone.

“Weeell, of course you don’t have to answer me if you don’t want to but I was wondering if there was someone… _special_ in your life”

It took Dezel a couple of seconds to understand what Zaveid had just asked, because normally the man was extremely straightforward so Dezel hadn’t expected to be asked if he was with someone in such a subtle manner.

“Tsk, shouldn’t you have asked me that _before_ kissing me and declaring that you were going to seduce me again?”, Dezel asked with irony, causing Zaveid to exhale a laugh.

“Yeah, well, you know already that I’m the kind of man who doesn’t think too much before acting”

“You mean that you’re the kind of man who doesn’t think _at all_ before acting”

“Hehe, point taken”, Zaveid’s smile could be heard in his voice, but the next time than he spoke the hesitation was back on his tone, “so? Do you have someone already?”

Dezel sighed softly before answering.

“No, I haven’t”, Dezel said finally before adding without even thinking, “I haven’t been with anyone since you left”

“Really?! Not even one?!”

Dezel felt irritation invading him when hearing Zaveid’s surprised tone.

“It seems that you keep forgetting how damn busy we have been these five years”

“Yeah, I know, but still it surprises me that no one had asked you out”

Dezel sighed with patience.

“I haven’t said that. I’ve just said that I haven’t been with anyone”

It took Zaveid a couple of seconds to interpret Dezel’s answer.

“Then…do you mean that people had asked you out and you’ve rejected them?”

“Congratulations, genius! It took you less than usual to understand”

Zaveid ignored Dezel’s sarcasm and asked again.

“Why?”

Dezel felt his heart beating faster when hearing Zaveid’s tone. Damn, if he had asked in his usual mocking tone it would have been easier to answer with a sarcastic comment but Zaveid’s voice had sounded completely serious.

Damn, what could he possibly answer? That during all those years he had been unable to forget him and consequently the mere thought of being able to date (much less to fall in love) with other person was completely impossible?

No, he couldn’t say that. Saying that would be to admit that he still loved Zaveid, and that was precisely what he was trying to avoid. Although it was proving to be more difficult than he had initially expected.

“I just didn’t find anyone who I truly liked. That’s all”, he opted to say. It wasn’t the truth but it wasn’t a lie either.

After a brief silence, Zaveid surprised Dezel by exhaling a short chuckle that sounded incredibly relieved.

“Sorry, Dezel-chan”, Dezel was even more surprised when hearing Zaveid’s embarrassed tone, because embarrassment wasn’t a feeling that Zaveid used to show, “I  know that the correct thing to do would be to desire you to find happiness with someone else. Someone who doesn’t leave you when you need it most. But I’m a really selfish bastard and I can’t help to feel happy knowing that I’ve been the only person in your life”

Dezel gulped and exhaled another snort.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to go back with you”

“I know”, Zaveid said with a resigned tone before adding with a purposely sensual one, “but when I finally use all my seduction techniques you won’t be able to resist”

“Yeah, yeah, keep dreaming”, Dezel said with a dismissive tone that caused Zaveid to laugh, and although Dezel was unsure about asking his curiosity ended winning, “and what about you? How many?”

“Hah?”, Zaveid sounded truly confused

“How many people have you been with during these five years”, Dezel clarified with impatience, his attempt of sounding indifferent failing completely.

“Oh”, Zaveid said, finally understanding, and then he adopted a playful tone, “I dare you to guess the number”

Dezel felt his heart sinking and insulted himself for that.

As he had feared, he had been the only idiot unable to find anyone else.

“Tsk, no thank you”, he muttered.

“Come on, Dezel-chan, say a number”

“I’m not interested”

“Okay, I’ll give you hint: it’s less than ten people”

Dezel suppressed the urge to shout at Zaveid by exhaling a deep breath, because even if he couldn’t help to feel disappointed he could partially understand that during those five years Zaveid needed to satisfy his sexual needs with someone else, so it would be very childish to act as if he was jealous.

“Nine?”, he ventured against his will, because he knew how insistent Zaveid could be so the fastest he played his ridiculous game, the soonest it would finish.

“Cold”

“Five?”

“Cold”

Dezel raised an eyebrow, honestly impressed.

“Two?”

“Warm”

Dezel gulped. Wait. It couldn’t be…

“One?”

“Hot”

Dezel remained silent before turning to his other side in order to put his head out the bed so that the older man could see him.

“You’re kidding me right?”, he said, his voice sounding with a mix of suspicion and expectation, and he had time to hear Zaveid chuckling before feeling a hand caressing softly his cheek.

“No, I’m not”, Zaveid said, his tone sounding so sincerely tender that Dezel felt his chest tightening, “remember when we began to date and I promised you that from then on it wasn’t going to be anyone else in my life? Well…I’m not called Zaveid ‘of the Promise’ for no reason”

Dezel exhaled a deep breath and after letting out a slightly breathless ‘ _Damn’_ he grabbed Zaveid’s hand, effectively surprising the older man.

“Come here”, Zaveid didn’t react immediately and Dezel could perfectly picture his face of astonishment without needing to see it, “I’ve…I’ve changed my mind: you’ll surely catch a cold if you sleep on the floor”

“You…are you serious?!”, Zaveid said with such a happy tone that Dezel couldn’t help to blush again.

“Tsk. Just hurry before I regret it, idiot. But put your pants on again first”

“Oh, come on, Dezel-chan, they are too uncomfortable…”

“That’s not my problem”, Dezel snapped, and he praised himself when his voice didn’t tremble when speaking next, “you have to choose: naked on the floor or dressed in my bed”

Zaveid pretended to think.

“So naked in your bed is out of the question…?”

“Okay, so you prefer the floor. Very well”

“No no no no no, it was a joke, it was a joke. I’m going to get dressed right now”

Dezel had to bite his bottom lip not to smile when hearing Zaveid fumbling clumsily with his pants while cursing.

“Okay, pants on”, Zaveid said with a satisfied tone after almost a complete minute, “Let me some space, Dezel-chan”

Zaveid stood up and entered the bed without giving Dezel time to be mentally prepared, so when feeling the familiar warm of Zaveid’s body pressing against his back his heart began to beat so frantically inside his chest that for a moment Dezel feared that Zaveid could hear it.

“I remembered this bed bigger”, Zaveid commented with amusement, adopting a facing-up position, “umh…Dezel-chan, I suppose that the answer is ‘no’ but just in case: spooning you is completely out of the question, right?”

“Your guess is correct”, Dezel answered cuttingly, causing Zaveid to chuckle resignedly.

Damn, he was feeling nervous just for the light contact of Zaveid’s arm against his back. Maybe he should have let Zaveid sleep on the floor like he had initially planned but when discovering that the older man had been faithful to his promise despite all those years had made him so ridiculous happy that he had been unable to let the idiot hurt his back by sleeping in such an uncomfortable manner.

Damn it, he was really an idiot. He should be trying to avoid any situation that involved Zaveid and he being too close in order to prevent to fall in love again, and what had he just done? To allow Zaveid sleep in his bed.

Yeah, he couldn’t have thought in a better way to avoid any kind of stupid risk… 

“Oi, Dezel-chan…”

“What do you want now?”, Dezel said gruffly, because hearing Zaveid’s voice so suddenly when his thoughts were focused on him had made him almost jump in the bed.

“You know…about the song that Lailah-chan and Rose-chan had sung tonight…”

Dezel felt sweat forming on his forehead. Damn, he wasn’t expecting that Zaveid brought that subject up.

“Yeah? What’s with that?”, Dezel asked, his tone cautious, and after a brief pause (that for Dezel was way longer than it had really been) Zaveid spoke again.

“You know, the part that it says ' _You never meant to make me feel this way'_ it’s true”, Zaveid’s tone was serious again, and it hid a subtle sadness that didn’t escape Dezel’s sharp ears, “and although I understand that you hate me right now for hurting you like that believe me when I say that leaving you behind is the hardest thing that I’ve done in all my life. If there had existed any other way that hadn’t implied me having to abandon you, I would have chosen it no matter the cost”

Dezel gulped, and he had to wait some seconds to make sure that his voice wasn’t going to tremble when speaking.

“I don’t hate you”, he ended saying, “and I’ve told you already that I understand your motives. But still, leaving without telling me anything was…”

“I know”, Zaveid said with guiltiness, and Dezel was grateful to be interrupted because his voice had been about to fail him despite his attempts of keeping it firm, “I know, Dezel. I’m  truly sorry for that. But I promise that I’m going to compensate you”

Dezel snorted.

“The compensation has to be incredibly good if you seriously plan to make me fall for you again”

Zaveid laughed openly, his previous dark tone completely vanished, and Dezel realized that it had been the first time that he had been the one in initiating a joke about Zaveid’s attempts of seducing him.

Damn it, he was letting his guard down too easily and that was dangerous. Really dangerous.

“Oh, don’t worry, Dezel-chan. I’ll make sure to work hard to make that happen”, Zaveid said, his usual enervating confident tone back on his voice.

“Tsk, careful old man”, Dezel said with irony, “Maybe you end dying from overwork without results”

“Nah, don’t worry, I’m very tough. I’ll survive to make a proper use of this bed with you in more physical and funnier ways…h-hey, stop pushing, Dezel-chan, I’m going to fall!”

“Serves you right for saying such a stupid thing, jerk!”

At the end Zaveid managed to prevent his fall by placing a hand on the floor, and even if Dezel tried to adopt an offended attitude he couldn’t manage it to do it.

“Sleep already, idiot. Tomorrow we are going to get up early”

“Yeah, you’re right”, Dezel felt Zaveid’s hand caressing the back of his head softly for a brief moment, “good night, kid”

Dezel didn’t answer back because in that case the smile that was adorning his face right then would be very evident on his voice.

* * *

“Pssst!! Lailah, Edna, look at this!!”

“Ooooh! They are so cute! Our Operation is finally progressing!!”

“Chsst!! Baka! If you speak so loudly they are going to hear you!”

“But Edna-san, you’re speaking loud as well!”

“Hey, what are you doing there…?”

“AAAAH!!!”

Dezel woke up suddenly momentarily lost when hearing his three female friends shout at the same time, and although he couldn’t see the whole scene it didn’t take him much to guess what had happened: Rose, Lailah and Edna had tried to take a pick inside his…their caravan and Sorey had just caught them red-handed, surprising the three women accidentally.

“BAKA! Do you want us to die from a heart-attack?!”

“Ouch ouch! E-Edna, why are you hitting me?! I just wanted to say hello!”

“I told you that it was a bad idea to interrupt them, Sorey…”

“Damn women…”, Dezel muttered to himself with an angry tone, but when he tried to incorporate he realized that during his sleep Zaveid had settled a heavy arm over his body and now he was a little immobilized, “shit”, he cursed to himself before shouting through the (almost) closed door, “YOU BETTER LEAVE BEFORE I DECIDE TO GET OUT!”

Everyone exhaled another surprised shout and finally Dezel heard steps getting away.

“Damn, I’m going to kill them for sure”, Dezel muttered to himself before turning to his other side with certain effort because Zaveid was embracing him in a rather tight hug. Damn, how could that man keep asleep after the previous ruckus?, “oi, get up already. I can’t move because of you”

Dezel heard Zaveid mumbling something unintelligible, still half-sleep, before finally being awake enough to form a coherent sentence.

“Oh, good morning, Dezel-chan”

Dezel exhaled a resigned sigh and was about to ask Zaveid again to move when without warning Zaveid leaned over him and kissed him.

Dezel exhaled a choked gasp, completely taken by surprise when feeling Zaveid’s tongue slip inside his mouth to begin to explore his cavity languidly, causing Dezel’s stomach to tighten while an involuntary moan escaped his mouth, and that was the moment when he reacted to what was happening by pushing Zaveid back violently, causing the man to fall from the bed with a shocked cry.

“B-bastard, what the hell do you think you’re doing?!”, Dezel snapped with anger, not just for Zaveid’s action but also for the fact that a simple kiss had caused all his blood travel to his lower half, “damn, at the end I’ve been an idiot by trusting you…”

“W-wait, Dezel-chan…”, Zaveid said now completely awake while grabbing Dezel’s arm to stop him from leaving the caravan, “wait, it’s not what you think it is”

“Oh, really?”, Dezel said with a sarcastic tone while trying to keep walking towards the door, but Zaveid didn’t let him. Damn, why the hell did he have to be so strong?

“Look, I know that it’s going to sound like an excuse but I swear that when I’ve opened my eyes and I’ve seen you next to me the scene looked so familiar that at that moment I’ve thought that it was five years ago and we were still together”

Dezel stopped trying to get free from Zaveid’s grip, because although the older man was right and what he had just said it sounded like a rather stupid excuse, Zaveid’s tone sounded truly sincere. Besides, now that he remembered, Zaveid had always been incredibly slow when waking up.

“Tsk, seriously, how idiot you are?”, Dezel said with a resigned but at the same time relieved tone, making Zaveid exhale an embarrassed chuckle.

“Sorry”, Zaveid scratched the back of his head before speaking again with a teasing tone, “at least the kiss has been good?”

Dezel’s first impulse was to raise his arm to hit the older man, but at the last moment he decided that he was tired of reacting the same way every time that that idiot teased him like that, so instead of hitting him he grabbed Zaveid by his collar and forced him to bend down to whisper just in his ear.

“Yes, it has been”, Dezel hissed, and he could feel a wave of satisfaction when feeling Zaveid’s breathing hitch, “but if you do it again you’ll sleep outdoor anyway so you better not get confused again, Zaveid-chan”

After whispering that, Dezel got out his caravan, leaving a rather dumbfounded Zaveid behind, and Dezel couldn’t suppress a triumphal smirk while thinking that maybe he could get used to tease that idiot more often.

* * *

 “And so, that will be our schedule for the next two weeks”, Rose said with a cheery smile, looking at everyone alternatively, “are you okay with it?”

Everyone nodded. After having breakfast Rose and Lailah had proposed to have a reunion in order to discuss their next actions. At the end, they had decided that they would remain at Gododdin until the end of the week before moving towards their next destination: Pendrago.

“Well, actually I have a question”, Mikleo said with a hesitant voice, “are you sure that it’s a good idea that our next destination is Rolance capital? I mean, wouldn’t it be better to begin with smaller cities in order to practice more our performances before going to such an important city?”

“Yeah, if we had more time that would be indeed our plan of action, kid”, Zaveid said.

“But we don’t have time for that”, Edna completed simply, “the circus competition that will determine what circus is the best will be in just three months, and if we want to compete we have to perform in a couple of important cities at least”

“And considering that the most important cities with the exception of Ladylake (where the competition will take place) are Pendrago and Lastonbell, we have to focus on those no matter what”, Rose added, “besides, it’s going to take us a while to travel from Rolance to Hyland, so we can’t afford to waste too much time”

Mikleo gulped and nodded, his face showing a little concern.

“Oh, Mikleo-san, don’t show such a worried expression”, Lailah said with a tender tone, placing a reassuring hand over Mikleo’s one, “while traveling we’ll have time to keep training so by when we reach Pendrago you’ll be completely prepared to make an even better performance”

“Yes, Mibo, don’t worry: by then I’ll make sure that you don’t drop your shaft even once”

Mikleo smiled softly and nodded again, with more confidence.

“Yeah, and I’ll make sure that you don’t kill me with a bad movement of your sword”, Rose said while pointing at Sorey with a playful accusatory finger, causing the brunette kid to laugh.

“Aaand…”, Zaveid threw an arm around Dezel’s shoulder, “we’ll do such a good show that Dezel-chan will be forced to remove his clothes when we surpass the 100,000 galds this time…”

“That’s never going to happen”

“Okay, I’ll lighten the bet: instead of performing naked you’ll only have to sleep naked with me, does that sound better?”

“Zaveid-chan, you’re really asking to sleep outdoors next time…”

“Oh shit, okay, okay, it was a joke, I won’t make any more bets so please don’t kick me out Dezel-chan!”

Everyone began to laugh when hearing Zaveid apologize like that, including Mikleo, whose tension had reduced considerably after seeing Zaveid and Dezel’s funny interchange.

“Okay, guys…”, Rose said after everyone had calmed down, “let’s move already. We have work to do!”

* * *

The rest of the week passed in the blink of an eye:

During the first days, everyone took his time teaching Mikleo and Sorey the proper way to deal with the different kind of animals that they had at that moment: dodos, wolfs and a ground octopus.

Initially they considered to capture some aquatic animals so Mikleo could work with them during his next performance because the kid had an unnatural talent to work with water, but they decided to wait until being established in Pendrago to capture them. Besides, in order to give a proper performance it was needed to buy an inflatable pool, and there weren’t a lot of places that sold things like that, so they were forced to wait until reaching the capital to see if there was viable to carry out that idea.  

After just three days, Sorey and Mikleo had learnt enough to include the animals in the following show as Rose had promised. Until the end of the week, they did a total of three more shows at Goddodin that were great success and after the last show they immediately began to prepare everything for the travel.

They spent almost all the night and the next morning packing all the tents, tools, food (for them and for the animals) and belongings, and despite everyone was extremely tired because they hadn’t slept in 36 hours they decided to part immediately since they couldn’t afford to waste too much if they wanted to reach Pendrago in just another week.

Besides, with the money that they had earned at Goddodin they had been able to buy another two caravans: one small caravan for Sorey and Mikleo of the same size as the two that they already had, and a bigger caravan for the animals, since they expected to capture even more. Therefore, the time of traveling was going to be longer than usual because they couldn’t risk breaking a caravan for going too fast.

That meant that during the first three days they were traveling non-stop, taking turns at night to keep advancing with the caravans while the rest slept. Then, at the fourth day they finally reached a zone suitable enough to make an improvised camp, and since they were advancing faster than they had initially expected they decided to spend a couple of days established there to rest a little and to train.

And that was exactly what Dezel was doing when he was interrupted by an impressed loud yell.

“Wow! Those movements are new, aren’t they?”

Dezel exhaled a resigned sigh pretending to be more annoyed than he really was, since he had almost got used to Zaveid’s constant interruptions and teasing (although he kept dealing better with interruptions).

“Yes, they are”, Dezel says while stopping his pendulums so Zaveid could approach him without danger, “do you think that they are good enough to be used in the next show?”

“With a little more of practice yeah, they will. However…”, Zaveid positioned himself behind Dezel to grab both of the younger man’s arms in order to make him adopt a pose with his pendulums, “remember to relax your arms a little more before throwing your pendulums, and…”, Zaveid flexed his legs a little to hit the back of Zaveid’s knees softly, making him flex his knees as well, “remember to flex your legs more for a better balance”

Dezel nodded.

“Alright”, he simply said, turning his head to the side when hearing Zaveid exhale a soft chuckle, “what?”

“Oh, nothing”, Zaveid’s tone sounded equally amused and happy, “it’s just that just a week ago you got awfully tense whenever I touched you to help you with your moves but now you seem way more relaxed”

Dezel snorted, praising himself for keeping his attempt of blushing under control.

“I’ve just got used to your annoying presence, that’s all”, he just said.

“Mmm…”, Zaveid hummed to himself, “then that means…”, Zaveid’s hands began to travel from Dezel’s arms to his front until being enclosing him tightly, and Dezel had to suppress a sigh when feeling those familiar strong arms around him together with Zaveid’s warm breathing on his ear when speaking next in a too-sexy whisper, “…that you could get eventually used to me touching you in any other ways as well?”

Dezel exhaled a deep breath before turning his head to the side to be facing the older man, whose smirk could perfectly feel without needing to see it.

“Yes, I could…”, Zaveid’s eyes snap opened wide for a moment when hearing Dezel’s answer, although the younger man didn’t see that and kept talking, “…although that happening has the same odds than Mikleo declaring his love for Sorey this same day”

Zaveid laughed resignedly when hearing Dezel’s comment.

“Damn, Dezel-chan, you’re really mean! You shouldn’t play with this old man’s hopes”

Dezel raised an eyebrow confused. Playing with his hopes? What did he mean with that…?

However, just before he could ask anything he could hear the tent opening and some familiar female steps sounding, that were immediately followed by a surprised gasp.

“Umh…the lunch is ready but you can come later if you’re busy…”

When hearing the innuendo on Rose’s tone Dezel finally realized that Zaveid was still enclosing his arms around his body.

“Yeah, Rose-chan, we are a little busy so can you come back later?”

“No, we aren’t, so we’ll go right now”, Dezel corrected the older man while using his elbow to hit Zabeid’s ribs, causing him to exhale a soft pained ‘ouch’.

“You’re going to pay for this”, Zaveid ‘threatened’, rubbing the place where Dezel had hit him while walking towards the exit of the tent.

“I’m trembling in fear”, Dezel said sarcastically, a teasing smile on his face that caused Zaveid to chuckle.

“Don’t worry, the next time that you tremble it will be for something way more pleasant”, Zaveid promised, and despite the idiot had said it with a purposely exaggerated sensual tone Dezel felt his heart skip a beat nevertheless.

“Tsk, stop overestimating your abilities and go already, idiot”, he snapped with a smile, causing the older man to laugh again while leaving the tent.

“Umh…Dezel…”, Dezel was surprised when hearing Rose speak with a tone full of astonishment, “is it just me or you were flirting just now?”

Dezel’s mouth fell opened for a brief instant before assimilating Rose’s words.

What? He…flirting with Zaveid?

“Please, don’t be ridiculous”, he ended saying, although an uncomfortable feeling had settled in the pit of his stomach.

“Oh, come on!”, Rose exclaimed, “it’s evident that something has changed during this week: you have reduced quite considerably your level of sarcasm with Zaveid, you even laugh sometimes with his sexual teasing comments, and you haven’t complained again about sleeping together…I mean in the same bed, so come on, admit it!”

“I have nothing to admit”, Dezel snapped, and when realizing that he had used a too sharp tone he lightened it a little before speaking again, “please, go without me. I’ll go in a bit”

Dezel feared for a moment that Rose insisted but the girl seemed to have caught his incommodity because she stopped asking. And in fact when speaking next the girl’s tone sounded a little guilty, as if she regretted to have asked in the first place.

“Okay. Don’t take too much or the food will get cold”

After Rose left, Dezel exhaled a deep sigh and crossed his arms, lost in his thoughts.

Even if he had been about to deny the things that Rose had said, he had realized that he couldn’t because they were right. Zaveid’s presence had become something almost natural in his daily life again and although the man kept getting on his nerves a lot of times because that seemed to be in his nature, now he didn’t feel as annoyed or tense as he felt at the beginning.

Actually, it was just the contrary. He was really beginning to enjoy his company again, and he knew that doing that was a huge risk. There had even been a couple of times that he had found himself thinking about things that he shouldn’t. Or dreaming about things that he shouldn’t that caused a rather uncomfortable reaction in his lower half that forced him to leave his bed in a hurry while being careful not to wake Zaveid up so the older man didn’t notice his…problem.

But even if he knew that the best solution to avoid those extremely awkward situations was to put some distance between Zaveid and him, he hadn’t wanted to do that.

After discovering that the man hadn’t been fooling around when he left, Dezel had felt happier than he had ever been in a really long time, and he suddenly discovered that he didn’t want Zaveid out of his life anymore. That was for sure. But the problem was that he wasn’t sure about wanting him in it either. At least not in a romantic way even if his body and imagination sometimes seemed to think just the contrary.

And precisely because he didn’t want to advance things with Zaveid, what Rose had said about him flirting with the older man had worried him more than the girl could imagine. Because it had never occurred to him to see his last interactions with Zaveid it in that way. He just had opted to begin to reply to Zaveid’s innuendos just because he enjoyed to see (or in his case to feel) the man’s reactions.

And about letting Zaveid sleep in his bed he hadn’t done it in with any double intention. He had just done it in an impulse because after knowing that Zaveid had been faithful to him all those years he had been unable to leave him on the floor: it was too uncomfortable and unfair, and besides he had always loved the warm that  Zaveid’s body emitted.

But even so, and even if his intentions hadn’t been to flirt with Zaveid, Rose had a point when thinking that it could have seen that way to Zaveid’s eyes.

Damn, had he really been giving Zaveid a false impression with his actions without realizing it? Now that he remembered, Zaveid had commented himself something about playing with his hopes, and although Zaveid had told it as a joke maybe he was really feeling that way.

Oh damn. If that was the case he had to stop right then, because if he really didn’t want to be romantically involved with Zaveid what the hell was he going making the man believe the contrary? He couldn’t do that. Even if he didn’t want to think too deeply about it (because every time that he did it his chest felt oppressively tight) Zaveid really seemed to keep lov…caring about him really much.

Dezel bit his bottom lip with guiltiness. Damn it. Damn it, could it be that, without noticing and accidentally, he had been playing with Zaveid? Making him believe something that was never going to happen?

Dezel exhaled a frustrated sigh, a lump forming in his throat. Damn, why did everything have to be so damn confusing? Why couldn’t his feelings settle once and for all? Everything would be much easier if he hated or loved Zaveid clearly, because in the first case he could just kick him out and in the second case they would be together but he didn’t want either of those things.

He wanted to be with Zaveid but without going out with him because he was afraid of being hurt again but maybe at the end that couldn’t be possible. Not when it was clear that Zaveid wanted to be with him for real.  

Damn it. What should he do?

“Oi, Dezel-chan!”

Dezel jumped when hearing Zaveid’s voice so suddenly. Oh damn, the man couldn’t have chosen a worst moment to appear.

“Ups, sorry, I didn’t want to scare you”, Zaveid said with a chuckle, “but Edna is really hungry and you know how violent she gets when she is forced to wait to eat”

“O-oh, okay”, Dezel insulted himself internally when his voice trembled, and although he tried to leave the tent to immediately go with the rest he should have guessed that it was not that easy to fool Zaveid.

“Oi…”, Dezel tensed immediately when Zaveid touched his arms softly, and hearing the man speak with a tone that had none of his usual mockery in it didn’t help, “what happens? You’ve suddenly gotten too pale…”

“I’m fine”, Dezel said simply, trying to sound casual and failing because his tone had sounded incredibly strained, “come on: let’s go before Edna kills me for making her wait”

There was a silence so tense that it could almost be cut with a knife, but to Dezel’s surprise instead of the question that he was expecting Zaveid just exhaled a soft sigh and let his arm go.

“Okay, Dezel-chan,I get it”, he said with such a tender and understanding tone that Dezel had to suppress a gulp, “whatever it is what is bothering you it seems that you don’t want to share  it with me so I won’t ask. But please, if it’s not with me at least speak with Lailah-chan or Rose-chan. It’s not good to keep the bad things for yourself”

Zaveid ended the sentence grabbing his nose with his thumb and forefinger in a playful way before beginning to walk in front of him with calm steps, and the only thing that Dezel could do was to bite his bottom lip with force so it stopped trembling. 

Damn it. He seriously hated himself sometimes.

* * *

During the lunch Dezel avoided sitting next to Zaveid, and although he could perfectly feel everyone’s surprise when he decided to sit in the place that usually belonged to Rose, the girl sat on his place without asking anything, and the rest did the same.

When they finished eating, Mikleo and Sorey proposed to go hunting, and since the girls were busy working on their respective performance and Dezel wasn’t in the mood the only one who gladly accepted to accompany the kids was Zaveid, thing that Dezel thanked because the lunch had been awkward enough and he preferred not to coincide too much with Zaveid right then.

Dezel spent the following half-an hour checking the animals to make sure that they kept being alright after such a tiring travel, and just when he had decided to go to train with his pendulums in order to stop his annoying thoughts, Lailah entered the animals tent.

“Dezel-san”

Dezel exhaled a resigned sigh. Right then the only thing he wanted was to be alone.

“Can it wait, Lailah? Now I really want to train so…”

“What’s happened between you and Zaveid-san? And please, don’t bother to try to make me believe that everything is right because it won’t work”

Dezel gulped. Damn it, did everyone in the group have to be so damn busybody?

“Listen, Dezel-san…”, Lailah approached him slowly, “Rose-san had come to speak to me, and she seemed about to cry because she was afraid of her being the cause of you acting weird with Zaveid-san”

“What?”, Dezel exclaimed, taken by surprise, “that idiot, why the hell does she think that?”

“Because according to her you’ve begun to act weird after she asked you about your current relationship with Zaveid-san”

Dezel exhaled a frustrated sigh. Okay, it was true that he had begun to think about it when Rose had said that, but that didn’t mean that it was the girl’s fault.

“Dezel-san…”, Lailah settled a hand on his arm, and Dezel bit his lip remembering that Zaveid had did the same thing just a couple of hours ago, “what’s the matter?”

Dezel gulped, not knowing very well how to answer.

However, he hadn’t time to think much because at that moment a loud cry for help was heard outside their camp so Lailah and he immediately left the tent to find Rose and Edna already outside as well.

“Have you heard that?”, Rose asked with worried tone.

“It sounded like Mikeo’s voice”, Edna said, and she had to be deathly worried as well because he had called the kid for his real name.

“It came from there”, Dezel said pointing with his arm the place where he had heard the cry, pretending to be calmer than he really was.

“Rose-san, Edna-san, take the daggers and the animal’s antidote”, Lailah ordered with a calm voice while lifting her long dress a little to walk faster, “I have the feeling that the hunt may have gone wrong”

It didn’t take much to see that Lailah’s intuition hadn’t failed her, because when Dezel finally was able to pinpoint Mikeo’s cries the scene that welcomed Lailah and him was rather frightening: a gigantic monster very similar to a wild boar was attacking Zaveid, Mikleo and Sorey, and the attempts of the older man to attract the monster’s attention in order to let the kids escape seemed to be rather useless.

“Wow, perfect timing!”, Zaveid exclaimed with a breathless but still nonchalant tone, “I thought that I could manage myself but it’s being a little more difficult than I expected…woops!”

The monster had tried to attack Zaveid while he was talking and the man had been forced to jump to the side to avoid the hit.

“Idiot, don’t let your guard down!”, Dezel snapped with anger. Damn, he wanted to kill Zaveid for being so damn carefree but at least, that last movement had made the animal hit one of the big rocks that were spread over the place and had been momentarily stunned, allowing the kids and Zaveid to reunite with the rest.

“Sorry, Lailah, Dezel…”, Mikleo said with an apologetic tone, his voice sounding extremely ragged for all his previous cries, “I tried to run to the camp to warn you directly but…”

“Don’t worry, Mikleo-san, thanks to Dezel’s sharp ear we’ve been able to hear you just fine”

“What the hell had happened?”, Dezel asked.

“We were just hunting when he appeared”, Sorey explained between labored breathings. It seemed that Zaveid hadn’t been the only one in dealing with the monster because both kids were breathing heavily.

“Yeah, the bastard is horribly fast”, Zaveid said removing the sweet from his forehead, “we didn’t see him coming until it was too late”

Just at that moment, Edna and Rose arrived.

 “Zaveid…”, Edna said, her eyes fixed on the monster showing concern, “I don’t think that we can cure this one…”

Zaveid exhaled a sigh.

“Me neither but it’s worth a try. Let’s do it now since he is still stunned. Dezel-chan, I will need your help to secure the monster with the pendulums”

Dezel nodded and situated at one side of the monster while Zaveid did the same at the opposite side.

“We’ll be observing him”, Rose said, taking her dagger and adopting an offensive position while Lailah, Mikleo and Sorey circled the monster.

“When I give the signal immobilize him”

Edna extracted the antidote from her normin toy and faced the monster, and just when he was about to move again the girl cried a loud ‘NOW!’.

The girl hadn’t even finished the cry when both men threw their respective pendulums towards the other one so they ended interlaced, Dezel’s right pendulum with Zaveid’s left one and his left pendulum with Zaveid’s right one. Then both men knelt to secure the extreme on the pendulum on the ground, making the monster unable to move so much because of the two thin but extremely resistant combined threats that were pushing him against the ground as well.

However, even if Dezel had been expecting the struggle, the strength of the animal was even more brutal that he had calculated, and he estimated that Zaveid and he would only be able to stop the monster’s movements during fifteen seconds at most.

“Edna-chan…”, Zaveid said with a teasing tone despite the situation, “please, I don’t want to pressure you but could you hurry up?”

“Shut up, baka”, Edna said, her eyes fixed on the animal who was struggling with disgust for being immobilized, and fortunately after just a couple of seconds the animal opened his mouth wide to groan loudly allowing Edna throw successfully all the antidote’s content into his mouth.

For just a tiny moment, it seemed that it had worked, since the animal calmed down and stopped moving. But the illusion just lasted two brief seconds because almost immediately the animal began to move again, more forcibly than before, to the point that Dezel felt the threads of his pendulums begin to break.

“Damn, it’s no use” Zaveid commented with a frustrated tone, and then without warning Dezel felt his pendulums being released.

“Hey, what the hell are you doing?!”

“Zaveid!!”

Dezel heard Rose cry but he couldn’t see what was happening, that was Zaveid jumping over the monster to ride him as if he was a horse and surrounding the animals neck with his pendulums, and although at first glance he looked as if he was strangling him what he really was doing was to use his pendulums as an improvised bridle.

“I’m going to take him that way but I need help to lure him”

“Zaveid-san, that’s too dangerous!

Dezel felt impotence invading him. Damn, what the hell was happening? What the hell was too dangerous?!

“Okay, leave it to me”

“Sorey!”

Mikleo had only time to cry his friend’s name with worry because at that moment Sorey attacked the monster with his sword, causing the animal to cry from pain and anger before beginning to go after the kid, who by then had begun to run in the opposite direction of the group.

“Hurry, let’s go after them!”, Rose exclaimed.

“OI, what the hell is going on?!”, Dezel exclaimed with desperation while running with the rest.

“Sorey is…”, Mikleo tried to answer but the boy’s voice was barely audible, and seemed about to break at any moment, “Sorey is…”

“Zaveid and Sorey are leading the monster towards the cliff”, Edna completed when seeing that Mikleo couldn’t, and Dezel felt his heart sinking.

Oh damn. That bastard was going to try that trick again? Even when knowing that the last time he did something like that more than ten years ago he almost died?!

“ZAVEID!”, he cried with all his might. Damn, he could feel the wind hitting his face with more force than before, so they had to be pretty close to the cliff, “bastard, don’t you dare to do that!”

“Too late, Dezel-chan!”, Zaveid said with his usual carefree tone, “HERE WE GO!”

Mikleo and Dezel cried Sorey and Zaveid’s respective names at the same time, but their cries were muffled by the horrible loud grunt that the monster exhaled when falling from the cliff, and for the ominous silence that took place after that, Dezel deduced that the monster hadn’t been the only one in falling.

“No…”, Dezel heard Mikleo whisper next to him. He sounded about to cry, “Sorey…”

Dezel didn’t say anything. He felt as if all his body had been frozen, unable to move anymore, unable to react to what had just happened.

But then, his practically stopped heart began to beat again while fury and deep relief invaded him at once when hearing a familiar voice coming out from the cliff’s edge.

“O-oi!  Could someone help us?!”

“Yes, please, I would like to be in on the ground again…”

Dezel gritted his teeth. He was going to kill that bastard.

 “Wait, Dezel-san”, Lailah stopped him when seeing that he planned to join the rest to help lift Zaveid and Sorey, who had managed to hang on the edge of the cliff and not to fall with the monster, “don’t move, the terrain is really unstable. We’ll take care of it”

Dezel was about to protest but he knew that Lailah was right: at that moment, he was completely useless, because even if he could pinpoint where Zaveid and Sorey were, his lack of eyesight made him unable to be much of a help. And damn if that didn’t hurt.

“Hehe, I knew it was going to work. Great job, kid”

“Zaveid-san, Sorey-san, that’s been too dangerous!”

“ Jeez, guys, you should have thought it better before acting!”

“Yes, you should, baka. Super baka.”

“O-ouch, Edna, please, stop hitting us! Besides, at the end everything has gone right, and it’s been kind of funny to…”, Sorey stopped talking and fixed his eyes on his childhood friend, “Mikleo? Why are you about to…?”

“It’s been kind of funny?”, Mikleo repeated, his tone completely strained. He approached Sorey slowly and grabbed him by the front of his shirt, “you’ve been about to die…and the only thing you say is that it’s been kind of funny?!”

“M-Mikleo, calm down, I…”

“Don’t you dare to tell me to calm down!”, Mikleo incremented his grip on Sorey, his violet eyes still shining with fear, “you… for a moment I’ve thought that you were really dead”, Mikleo leant his head over Sorey’s shoulder, tears falling from his eyes to the ground, “idiot…could you imagine how I felt when thinking that the person I love had lost his life in front of me without letting me do anything to prevent it?”

Everyone but Dezel gasped in surprise, since this one was extremely busy trying to push back the lump that had settled on his throat because the words that Mikleo had just said were really similar to the feelings that were assaulting him right then.

“The person you love?”, Sorey’s eyes opened widely, “Mikleo, what do you mean with…?”

Sorey’s eyes opened even more if possible when Mikleo interrupted him by grabbing his face between his hands to join their lips togetehr in a violent kiss, and he was unable to change that astonished expression even when the kiss stopped after some seconds. 

“I mean this, idiot”, Mikleo snapped before turning around to disappear towards the nearest forest.

During some seconds no one said anything, and the one who ended breaking the silence was Lailah, who approached Sorey in order to settle a hand on the kid’s shoulder.

“Sorey-san, I think that you should go after him”

For the first time since they knew the kid, Sorey was at a loss of words, and he simply nodded before doing as Lailah had said and following Mikleo into the forest.

“Well, that wasn’t unexpected at all”, Edna commented simply while opening her umbrella.

“Should we wait for them?”, Rose asked a little unsure.

“Let them be. Those kids have a lot to talk about”, Dezel said simply before beginning to walk with the clear intention to come back to their camp, but he just managed to give a couple of steps before a big figure stepped in front of him, stopping his advance.

“Wait, Dezel-chan…”

“What? Do you want to talk now too?”, Dezel commented with all the sarcasm that he could reunite, “well, sorry but I don’t feel like talking with someone who risks himself like that without caring about the others’ opinion”

“Dezel-chan…”, Zaveid began with  a conciliatory tone, but Dezel wasn’t willing to hear. He could still feel his whole body trembling because of the shock when he thought that Zaveid had died, and that angered him. A lot.

“You know? If you are so willing to break your fucking neck feel free to do it, but in that case stop messing with my damn head already”

“…Messing with your head?”, Zaveid’s voice sounded so confused that Dezel had to suppress the impulse to hit him. How fucking oblivious he was?, “what do you mean with…?”

“I mean exactly what I’ve said”, Dezel snapped, and before he could realize what he was doing he was shouting all what he had been trying to keep to himself, “you…damn, it’s you damn fault that I don’t know how I am feeling anymore”

Dezel felt that Zaveid wanted to say something but he didn’t let him interrupt him.

“After you left, I tried to hate you. Because I thought that by doing that it would be easier for me to keep going. But I couldn’t. I was not just unable to hate you but I could never forget you no matter how many times I tried. For that reason I’ve been unable to be with anyone else”, Dezel, exhaled a broken laugh, “how could I when your annoying face kept showing in my head over and over again”

If Dezel hadn’t lost his eyesight, he would have been able to see the pained expression that Zaveid had at that moment, but unfortunately he couldn’t see it.

“However, even if I couldn’t forget you I ended accepting that I wasn’t going to see you again, and I managed to stop thinking about you so much. But just when I thought that I had managed to get over it you came back. And if that wasn’t enough to turn my life upside down again you claimed that you were going to make me fall for you again, and that you have waited for me all this time, and damn, I’m so stupid that I just needed to hear that to feel the temptation of being with you again but…”, Dezel gulped, his voice beginning to tremble, “…but even if a part of him wants to try it, another part just wants to kick you out of my life when knowing that maybe someday you’ll disappear again, or that you’ll do something like today by risking your life as if you didn’t care at all to leave me alone again. And the worst part if that because of that I end playing with your feelings as well because I can’t possibly decide if I want to be with you or not and…”

And Dezel couldn’t end the sentence because at that moment Zaveid hugged him, and although Dezel’s first intention had been to protest he found himself gulping and unable to push the older man away when feeling how much affection, care and guiltiness that gesture carried.

“Sorry, Dezel-chan. You’re completely right. It’s my fault that your head is a mess”

Zaveid enclosed his arms around Dezel’s body even tighter, to the point that Dezel began to feel dazed when Zaveid’s familiar aroma invaded him.

“I know that because of me you’ve suffered a lot”, Zaveid continued, his tone sounding incredibly tender and guilty at the same time, “but right now I’m here, and from now on I’m going to make sure not to screw things up again. And about risking myself, I promise you that I would never dare to make a mistake as dying now that I’ve finally found you again. Although I can’t promise you anything about not hurting this handsome face of mine from time to time because of my reckless behavior”

Dezel couldn’t suppress a snort, but against his will Zaveid’s words had calmed him down. Damn, he shouldn’t get so easily comforted by the man undying confidence but he couldn’t help it. Zaveid had managed to calm him that way since he was a little kid, so now it was difficult to resist the temptation of believing Zaveid’s words when he spoke like that.

“Oh, and by the way…”, Zaveid stepped back a little to look at Dezel, although his arms kept surrounding his waist, “not in a hundredth years I would have imagined that you were worried about being playing with me”

Dezel felt himself blushing when hearing Zaveid’s extremely amused tone.

“That’s Rose fault”, Dezel snapped without thinking, even if he himself knew that it wasn’t like that, “she mentioned that I was flirting with you and…”

“Oh, you were?! Damn, Dezel-chan, don’t be so subtle or I won’t catch your hints…”

“Zaveid…”

The older man laughed.

“I was just mocking you”, he said with a teasing tone.

“Really?”, Dezel insisted, still not completely convinced, “because it was not just Rose: you said it too”

“I said what?”, Zaveid asked with surprise, honestly not knowing what Dezel was talking about.

“That…”, Dezel gulped and crossed his arms with embarrassment, “…that I shouldn’t play with your hopes”

Zaveid blinked a couple of times before laughing again.

“For goodness sake, Dezel-chan, I thought that you knew me well enough to know when I’m joking!”

“Well, you’re always joking”, Dezel replied, “and I know that sometimes you make jokes to hide your true feelings”

Zaveid exhaled a sigh and scratched the back of his head.

“I can’t certainly deny that”, he said with a more serious tone before caressing Dezel’s cheek softly, causing the younger man’s heart to beat lightly faster, “but this time I wasn’t hiding anything, Dezel-chan, and don’t worry because I know that you’re not playing with my feelings. You just aren’t sure about what you feel yet, and I’m the one at fault at that so stop taking the blame of it. The only thing that you don’t have to forget is that this time I’m not going anywhere, and that I’ll keep being here for you even if my attempts of winning your heart end failing definitively, so don’t force your feelings in any way: you’ll eventually find what you really want. That will be me, of course”

Dezel couldn’t suppress a relieved chuckle when hearing Zaveid add the last sentence with a purposely seducing tone, and he was about to reply teasingly when he suddenly remembered something.

“Umh…Zaveid…where are Lailah, Edna and Rose?”

“Oh, right here”

“WHAT?!”

Zaveid burst out laughing.

“Don’t worry, they left when we began to talk”, Zaveid said with a reassuring tone, and Dezel exhaled a relieved sigh. Fuck, he would have died from embarrassment if the girls had heard what he had said to Zaveid.

“We should come back then or maybe they’ll begin to worry”

“Nah, I don’t think so. After all I think that it’s going to take Mikleo and Sorey a while to come back”

Dezel raised an eyebrow.

“Do you really think that they are…?”

He didn’t complete the sentence but Zaveid understood him perfectly.

“Yep, I bet they are. And speaking of that…”, Zaveid enclosed an arm around his shoulders, “if I remember correctly you mentioned something about the odds of Mikleo declaring his love for Sorey today...”

Dezel blushed intensely. Damn, those kids were surely inopportune.

“I don’t remember anything about that”

“Hah?! Dezel-chan, you liar! I know that you remember!”

“I don’t, so shut up and let’s come back with the rest”

Dezel kept ignoring Zaveid’s whines until they arrived at their camp, where the girls were waiting for them.

 “I hope that Mikleo-san and Sorey-san come back before it gets dark”, Lailah commented with concern.

“Tsk, they are a couple of idiots: they would be more comfortable doing what they are doing in their caravan…”

“Edna!”, Rose exclaimed, but laughter could be heard in his voice.

“But Edna-chan is right: doing it against a tree is not precisely comfortable…”

“Zaveid-san!”

“Oh, come on Lailah-chan, don’t blush, I’m just telling the truth. Right Dezel-chan?”

“Yes, it isn’t comfortable at all: the ground is better, right Zaveid-chan?”

Everyone stared at Dezel in disbelief, but the one whose mouth was the most opened was Zaveid.

“Oh damn, Dezel, you’ve made Zaveid blush!”

“Hey, that’s not true!”

“Congratulations, Dezel: you’ve managed to embarrass this baka”

“Oh my, the red suits your cheeks really well, Zaveid-san!”

“Oi, why are all of you against me?!”

Everyone laughed when hearing Zaveid’s offended tone.

“Kid…”, Zaveid enclosed his arm around Dezel’s shoulders again, a smile sounding on his apparent threatening tone, “…you’re learning too fast for your own good”

Dezel adjusted his hat and just shrugged, a teasing smile on his face.

“I’ve had a great master”, he simply said, making Zaveid laugh with amusement.

“Okay, Zaveid-san, please accompany me: I would like to verify that you haven’t been hurt”

“Oi, I’m perfectly fine!”

“Well, in that case you won’t mind that I give you a thorough check up”, Lailah said with a charming voice before looking at Edna, “Edna-san, please, I’ll need your help to assure that Zaveid-san doesn’t try to escape”

“Hai”, Edna said simply while grabbing Zaveid’s arm with way more strength that she seemed to have to force the man to follow her and Lailah towards their caravan despite the man’s protests.

 “So…”, Rose begun to ask with an hesitant tone when Dezel and she were alone, “is everything okay again with you two?”

Dezel exhaled a sigh before flicking Rose in the forehead, causing the girl to open her eyes widely, not expecting that gesture from Dezel.

“Yes, it is, idiot. So stop taking the blame for things that you shouldn’t”, Dezel said, and he could clearly felt the relief on the girl’s chuckle.

Yes. Even if his feelings towards that annoying but fascinating man were still unclear, everything was fine between them, and he was glad for that. Although of course, everything would be even better if his heart and brain could agree once and for all.

 “Come on, Dezel. Let’s go to see how Lailah tortures Zaveid”

Dezel couldn’t suppress a smile when hearing Rose’s enthusiastic tone.

“Yeah, let’s go. It’s always fun to see Lailah enter her doctor mode. She is even scarier than usual”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that most part of this chapter has been really focused on Dezel’s doubts about his feelings for Zaveid and consequently maybe it has been a boring chapter ^^U But I think that it was a necessary chapter so that Dezel could speak clearly with Zaveid and finally let all his doubts and fears out, so fortunately from then on their relationship will evolve :D 
> 
> Nevertheless, I hope that you have enjoyed their interactions until now despite that :) 
> 
> And Mikleo and Sorey’s relationship has finally progressed :) I’ll probably write a side story about those two explaining what exactly happened in the forest ;)
> 
> Just another chapter to go before beginning the arc of the past! :D As always, thank you so much for the comments and occasional kudos and please feel free to leave a comment telling me what you think! ^^


	5. Two conditions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To the ones who may be missing more Sorey/Mikleo interactions, I’ve updated a one-shot about what happened between Mikleo and Sorey after the fight with the monster in the previous chapter :)

“Wooow! This place is huge!”

Rose couldn’t suppress a laugh when hearing Sorey’s enthusiastic comment when the group finally reached Pendrago.

Three days had passed since the monster’s attack and fortunately they hadn’t suffered any more incidents during the rest of the journey, so they had been able to enjoy some days of rest that had been full of unilateral teasing towards Sorey and Mikleo, because the moment the group noticed the impossible-to-hide love-marks that were adorning Mikleo’s neck when the two boys finally returned to the camp, neither of them (not even Dezel) had been able to resist the temptation to tease the recently formed pair. Although certainly the boys were so happy to be together that they didn’t seem to care much about the other’s jokes.

“Of course it is, silly”, Edna commented, “We are at Rolance capital after all”

“Yes, but still it’s _really_ impressive”, Mikleo added with admiration.

“Yes, although it doesn’t matter how huge or impressive it is if we aren’t allowed to perform”, Dezel added with a certain regretful tone while crossing his arms.

“Dezel-san…”, Lailah said with a soft but reproachful tone, “you shouldn’t be so negative when he haven’t even tried it yet”

“Yeah, Lailah-chan is right”, Zaveid intervened leaning his elbow on Dezel’s left shoulder, “besides, now that the Pope Masedra has retired I’ve heard that there is a new young and beautiful Cardinal taking his place, so she will be even more easier to convince than the chief of Goddodin”

Dezel snorted.

“Please, don’t tell me that you plan to use your supposedly infallible charms to convince her”

“Oooh, can’t I?!”, Zaveid exclaimed with a fake disappointed voice before adding with his characteristic teasing one, “what’s the matter, Dezel-chan? Would you be jealous if I tried to seduce her…?”

“Yes, I would, so you better promise to behave or I’ll be the one in accompanying Lailah”

Even if Dezel couldn’t see Zaveid’s face, when hearing Rose begin to laugh he accurately deduced that Zaveid’s expression when hearing him admit his more than possible jealousy had been rather priceless.

“Don’t worry, Dezel-san”, Lailah said with a reassuring tone, “I’ll be keeping an eye on Zaveid-san so he doesn’t dare to act inappropriately”

“Although I don’t think that he has any intention to flirt with anyone but you”, Edna added with conviction, making Zaveid chuckle.

“Yeah, you’ve caught me Edna-chan”, Zaveid enclosed his arms around Dezel’s neck from behind to press the younger man’s body against his, “I’m just interested in this one”

“I have a name, you know?”, Dezel protested, but he didn’t make any effort to push Zaveid away because in fact he was feeling pretty comfortable leaning against the older man’s body like that.

“Okay, then…”, Rose resumed, “the plan is that Zaveid and Lailah go to speak with the Cardinal while the rest go to buy supplies and an inflatable pool for Mikleo’s new performance, right?”

“Yep, that’s the plan”, Zaveid agreed while finally letting Dezel go, and this one found himself missing the contact immediately.

“Oh, and if you could hunt some aquatic animals while we are out it would be perfect”, Lailah added, “I’ve heard that there is a lake not far away from here so maybe that would be a good place to start. After all, Pendrago’s lake-horses are famous and since they can live outside the water as well they’ll be relatively easy to maintain”

“Great!”, Rose nodded, “then Edna, Mikleo and Sorey will go hunting while Dezel and I go shopping”

“Oi, why must I be the one who goes shopping?”, Dezel demanded to know, causing Rose to exhale a patient sigh before speaking again.

“Because Mikleo is really skilled when hunting aquatic animals, Edna should go as well in case she needs to use the antidote, and Sorey…”, Rose thought for a moment in a good reason before adding with a happy tone, “…and Sorey is Mikleo’s boyfriend now, so they should be together, don’t you think?”

Sorey exhaled an amused chuckle while Mikleo blushed a little.

“I like that last argument, Rose”, Sorey said before enclosing his arm around Mikleo’s waist to kiss him on the cheek affectionately, causing Mikleo to blush even more while smiling.

Dezel snorted and crossed his arms in a sulking way, but before he could protest Zaveid spoke.

“Well, Rose-chan, according to that logic Dezel-chan should go with Lailah-chan and me”

Rose chuckled before asking with a teasing tone.

“Oh, so then that means that you are already boyfri…?”

“No”, Dezel said immediately.

“Not yet”, Zaveid corrected just a tenth of a second later, causing Dezel to exhale a resigned sigh.

“Then the groups are settled”, Lailah said, “let’s go, Zaveid-san. I have the feeling that it’s going to take us a while to convince the Cardinal to allow us perform” 

“Yeah, I’m afraid that having my seduction arts sealed is going to make this task more complicated”, Zaveid commented with a playful tone while flicking Dezel’s hat before following Lailah towards the entrance of Pendrago, and although Dezel shook his head with patience there was a hint of a smile about to show in his face.

“Okay, let’s go hunt those monsters already!”, Sorey exclaimed with a happy tone, beginning to run towards the lake that Lailah had just signaled.

“Hey, Sorey, wait for us!”, Mikleo protested running after his boyfriend, who immediately stopped in order to let Mikleo catch up with him to share a rather long kiss.

“Those bakas better focus on the hunting or I’ll hit them for real”, Edna sighed with resignation before beginning to walk towards the two lovebirds, but her tiny smile made her apparent threatening tone lose part of its effect.

“Okay, Dezel”, Rose said with a cheery tone when they were the only ones left, “let’s make an inventory of our supplies before going shopping”

“Yeah, it sounds like fun”

Rose chuckled when hearing Dezel’s ironic tone and patted his pack reassuringly.

“Come on, the soonest we all finish the soonest you’ll be able to see you _almost_ -boyfriend again”

“Rose…”

“Hey, you haven’t denied it before so don’t complain”, Rose replied before walking towards the caravan where they were keeping the supplies while singing to herself, causing Dezel to exhale a defeated sigh before following the animated girl inside, pretending to be more annoyed about his task than he really was.

They spent almost half-an-hour stocking their supplies and taking note about the things they needed before finally entering the city, which hadn’t changed too much since the last time that they had visited it, more than five years ago.

After buying the food supplies, they also bought several things for their respective performances (threads for Dezel and Zaveid’s pendulums, paper for Lailah, new daggers for Rose since hers were almost rusted…) before finally going to search the inflatable pool.

As they have been expecting, they had to visit practically all the shops of the city until finally finding what they were looking for, so by when they returned to the camp Edna, Sorey and Mikleo were back, together with two rather big lake-horses.

“Oooh, they’re cute!”, Rose exclaimed approaching the animals, “have you had any trouble while capturing them?”

“No, it seems that Hedalf didn’t want to risk by damaging the animals that were near the capital”, Edna commented, her tone sounding sharp when mentioning that name.

“The truth is that it’s been rather easy”, Sorey said while patting the animal’s back softly, causing him to purr appreciatively, “these animals are really docile”

“Although they move a lot. We’ve ended completely drenched while trying to catch them”, Mikleo added with a chuckle signaling their rather wet clothes.

“What about you?”, Edna asked then, looking at Rose and Dezel, “Have you found the pool?”

“Yep, here it is. A 6x6 meters pool”, Rose said signaling one of the multiples bags that she and Dezel were carrying, “although I think that we should mount it to see if it’s big enough for the show”

“Oh, don’t worry. As long as the lake-horses could be in it comfortably it will be fine”, Mikleo said with a reassuring tone while helping Rose and Dezel to carry the bags inside one of the caravans.

“And Lailah and Zaveid? Hadn’t they come back yet?”, Dezel couldn’t help to ask.

“No, they haven’t”, Sorey commented before adding, “but according to Lailah it was going to take them a while to convince the Cardinal”

“What’s wrong, Dezel?”, Rose asked with a mischievous smile, “do you miss Zaveid?”

“Tsk, of course not, idiot”, he snapped, but he regretted to answer so hurriedly because that just caused the girl to laugh with amusement. Damn, even if he had got used to reply to (almost all) Zaveid’s teasing he had a long way to go until being able to defeat Rose verbally. Or the girls in general.

Just ten minutes later, the pool was inflated with the foot pump that Dezel and Rose had bought as well, and since they wanted to see if Mikleo was going to have enough space to make his performance, they decided to fill the pool with the water cans that they had also bought, since the weather was rather nice and there wasn’t any risk about the water being spread because of the wind.

“Oh yes, this is perfect”, Mikleo said with a happy smile once he was inside the pool. He had rolled his pants up to his knees since the depth of the pool was around forty centimeters and was using his staff to try out some movements, “it’s perfect. I have all the space I need, thank you so much, guys”

“Oh, don’t thank us, after all thank to this I’m sure that we’ll have even more success”, Rose said, before adding with an excited tone, “come on: try to do something with the lake-horses!”

“What? Right now?!”, Mikleo asked with a nervous tone.

“Why not? After all Sorey is always bragging about how good you are, let’s see if he is right”, Dezel said, causing Mikleo to blush a little before throwing a side glance towards Sorey, who was looking at him with a confident smile.

“Okay then”, Mikleo finally said, before adding with a still nervous tone, “but they haven’t been trained yet so maybe they just ignore me”

However, despite Mikleo’s words he didn’t have any problem in making the animals do as he said. He just needed to use his staff in order to indicate the animal where it had to go or when it had to keep still and he even managed to make one of the lake-horses do some kind of cartwheel by moving his staff with a rotating movement, although the result of that exhibition was that the animal splashed a nice quantity of water just over Edna, who ended completely soaked.

“S-sorry, Edna!”, Mikleo exclaimed with a frightened voice, “I-I didn’t want to…”

“I’m going to kill you, Meebo”, Edna hissed while entering the pool as well to hit with her umbrella the back of Mikleo’s legs with force, causing the kid to fall into the water with a cry, ending even more soaked than Edna, although his attempt of protest died on his throat because seeing Edna laugh so openly was something extremely rare.

“Hey, I want to play too!”, Sorey said between laughs before entering the pool as well to lie facing up next to the fallen Mikleo, who immediately took opportunity to lean over him to kiss him.

“Damn, we are going to have to buy more water cans…”, Dezel commented, and when not obtaining an answer from Rose his instincts immediately made him jump to his side just in time to hear the girl exhale a surprised cry while falling into the water with the rest, her attempt of throwing Dezel into the pool completely destroyed.

“Jeez, you supposedly didn’t have to move!”, Rose exclaimed between coughs and laughs, since she had landed on the water with her head first.

“Serves you right, idiot”, Dezel replied with a triumphal tone.

“Weeell, Lailah-chan, it seems that certain people have the nerve to begin to have fun without us”

“Yes, Zaveid-san, it certainly seems that way”

Dezel froze when those teasing voices just behind him, and this time not even his usual fast reflexes were enough to allow him to escape from Zaveid, who immediately surrounded him from behind with both of his arms.

“Wait, wait, Zaveid, don’t…!”

But as he was fearing, the man ignored his pleads completely and with a jump he threw the both of them into the pool together with the rest.

“Bastard!”, Dezel exclaimed when he emerged between coughs, his attempt of angry tone  failing because to try to keep an offended attitude while being completely drenched was impossible, so he immediately changed his tactic by grabbing Zaveid’s shoulders to duck the until now laughing man under the surface.

“Wow, Dezel-chan, I would love that you were so passionate in other situations as well”, Zaveid commented with a teasing tone once his face was out the surface again.

“Shut up”, Dezel replied simply, but he was smiling rather widely, and although he tried to stand up at that moment Rose threw herself over him causing him to end on the water again facing down, making the rest begin to laugh.

“Aha!! Revenge from before!!”, the girl exclaimed triumphantly while Dezel tried to recover his breath.

“What the hell?!”, Dezel exclaimed while grabbing Rose, who was trying to escape, “It should be me the one taking revenge on you for having tried to push me!”

“Guys, it’s getting late”, Lailah commented from out of the pool, “you should get out or you’ll end catch a cold”

“You’re right, Lailah”, Rose said with an understanding tone, offering a hand to the long-haired woman, “can you give me a hand to get out, please?”

“Of course, Rose-san, let me help y… _yiaaaaaah_!”

Although Dezel couldn’t see what had happened, Lailah’s high pitched cry and the splash that followed next was enough to allow him deduce that Rose had just pulled Lailah the moment this one had grabbed her hand, causing the too innocent woman to fall into the pool as well.

“R-Rose-san! You’re so mean!”, Lailah exclaimed with a pouting tone that caused Rose to laugh.

“Sorry, Lailah, but you were too dry in comparison with the rest”, Rose said, her tone sounding as if her argument was perfectly valid.

“Lailah-chan, don’t worry, you’re also beautiful while being wet…”

“ _Zaveid-san_!!!”

“Oh damn, I swear that this time I wasn’t saying it that way!”, Zaveid exclaimed with a hurried tone that showed that he was being sincere, but still the opportunity was too good to let it slide.

“If that it’s your way of seducing someone I recommend you to work harder, Zaveid-chan…”

Dezel could perfectly picture Zaveid’s expression when hearing the rest laugh even louder, and certainly he should have expected that saying that was going to make Zaveid reply back at full force.

“Don’t worry, Dezel-chan, I know that you only like dirty talk when we are on it so…”

“THAT’S A LIE!”, Dezel shouted without being able to help it, causing Zaveid to begin to laugh openly together with the rest.

“I know, Dezel-chan. You just like when…”

“Okay, enough: I’m going to drown you”

“O-oi, oi, it was a joke, it was a joke, I wasn’t going to say anything!!”

Zaveid managed somehow to avoid Dezel’s attempt of ducking him under the water, and after wasting some more time splashing what it remained of the water on the rest they began to feel cold for real so everyone decided to go to their respective caravans to get a change of clothes before finally having dinner.

“Damn, now it’s cold as hell…”, Dezel stuttered once they were finally inside their caravan.

“You’re exaggerating, it’s not that cold”, Zaveid commented with a chuckle while wringing his hair, wetting as a result the floor of the caravan, and if Dezel wasn’t so busy removing hurriedly his clothes he would have protested for sure.

“Damn…”, Dezel hissed through trembling teeth, removing his hat and jacket rapidly to throw them on the bed, “damn, if I catch a cold I swear that I’ll kill you”

Dezel crossed his arms in front of his chest to remove his t-shirt with a fluid movement, using both of his hands to push back his wet hair, and he was about to keep protesting when he realized that Zaveid had stopped all his movements, since he wasn’t hearing even a single sound coming from the man.

“Zaveid?”, he asked with an unsure tone, and after a couple of seconds Zaveid cleared his throat briefly before speaking, and maybe it was Dezel’s imagination but Zaveid’s voice was sounding a little ragged and strained, as if he was making an effort to keep it normal.

“You know, I’ve just remembered that we’ve left the pool in the open so I better dismount it”

“What? Now?”, Dezel asked  with confusion, “wait, shouldn’t it be better that you changed yourself first before…?”

“Nah, don’t worry, I’ll be okay”, Zaveid interrupted him with a tone that sounded forcibly nonchalant, but before Dezel could ask the older man if he was sure the door had already closed behind Zaveid.

“That idiot, what the hell is his problem? He is going to get ill”, Dezel muttered to himself with a resigned tone before going inside the bathroom to dry himself.

Twenty minutes later Dezel was about to leave the caravan just to catch Zaveid about to enter it again.

“Wow, perfect timing”, Zaveid said with an amused tone while stepping inside, “I think that Rose-chan is beginning to prepare the dinner so maybe you should go to give her a hand” 

“Rose?”, Dezel asked confused, “I thought that Lailah was going to prepare it tonight”

“Yeah, but when I’ve passed by the girl’s caravan she was still drying her hair and I think it’s going to take her at least another twenty minutes to finish”

Dezel snorted when hearing the explanation.

“Seriously, I’ll never understand how you two can wear your hair so long. It’s completely unpractical”

“Yeah, a little, but it’s the price to pay if I want to keep being the second most handsome man around here”

Dezel shook his head with resignation, ignoring Zaveid’s compliment while muttering to himself.

“Idiot. You’d be handsome with any hair you’d decide to wear…”

“Hah? Have you said something, Dezel-chan?”

“N-nothing”, Dezel snapped, lowering his hat a little before finally leaving the caravan, “just change yourself quickly or we’ll begin to eat without you”

“Yes, sir!”, Zaveid said, but before closing the door behind him he added with a playful one, “and thanks for the compliment…”

Dezel felt himself blushing when realizing that Zaveid had heard his previous comment. Damn, he had forgotten that Zaveid’s hearing had little to envy his own.

* * *

“It has taken you a damn while”, Edna exclaimed with a grumpy tone when Lailah and Zaveid finally joined the rest on the dinner table half-an-hour later.

“Sorry, Edna-san…”, Lailah said with an apologetic tone before glaring at Rose,  “although it’s been Rose-san’s fault that you have been forced to wait”

“Oh, come on, Lailah, don’t pretend that you haven’t had fun”, Rose said while batting her eyelashes in an extremely cheap attempt to convince her, and surprisingly it worked because Lailah exhaled a soft chuckle.

“Besides, the one at fault it’s Mikleo, since he has been the first one in splashing Edna…”

“What?!”

Everyone laughed when seeing Mikleo look at Sorey with his eyes opened at his maximum when hearing the boy’s unfair accusation, but when realizing that Sorey was just mocking him he exhaled a resigned sigh before gladly accepting his boyfriend’s conciliatory kiss.

“Well then…”, Zaveid said while sitting next to Dezel, “do you want to know what Lailah and I have been told or not?”

“That’s right!”, Rose exclaimed with a high-pitched cry, “we almost forget it!”

“Let me guess: we are not allowed to enter”

“As optimistic as always, Dezel-chan”, Zaveid said with an affectionate tone before adding with a more serious one, “although truth to be told, we don’t know yet if we are allowed or not”

“Why?”, Edna asked with confusion.

“Because we didn’t know that we couldn’t see the Cardinal without asking for an appointment first”, Lailah explained, “and in fact when we’ve gone to request one we’ve been told that we had to wait a week but…”

“ _A WEEK_?!”

“ _BUT_ …”, Zaveid repeated with an amused tone after everyone shouted at the same time without letting Lailah continue, “…after hearing that, we’ve gone to speak with Sergei Strelker, the head of the Knights that conform the Army of Rolance, and after explaining our situation to him he has used his influence to arrange a meeting with the Cardinal tomorrow”

Everyone exhaled a relieved sigh at the same time.

“Good job, guys”, Sorey said with an admiring tone.

“Yeah”, Rose smiled gratefully, “if we had lost another week I don’t think that we would have had time to follow our schedule”

“What time is the meeting?”, Edna asked.

“Six o’clock”, Lailah answered.

“What? So early?”, Mikleo exclaimed, his eyes opened wide.

“It has been the only hour at which the Cardinal has agreed to see us”, Lailah said with a resigned smile.

“It seems that that woman is doing everything she can to avoid us”, Dezel commented with a frown.

“Yeah, I think you’re right”, Zaveid admitted, “but hey, at least we have Sergei’s support, and the guy seemed to be rather reliable”

“Yes, he looked like a really good man”, Lailah agreed, “so with a little of luck we’ll be able to perform in a couple of days”

“Oh, that would be great!”, Rose said with a happy tone, her eyes shining with enthusiasm, “then tomorrow we should get up even earlier than usual in order to train, just in case we are allowed to perform tomorrow night”

“Yeah, and we should consider as well to have everything more or less packed just in case we have to leave at the end”

Rose exhaled a resigned sigh while Zaveid burst out laughing when hearing Dezel’s comment.

“Dezel-san, since we still don’t know what the answer is going to be, it’s going to cost you the same to think positively than negatively”, Lailah reasoned with a soft tone.

“Don’t try to make him change his mind, Lailah”, Edna commented with a natural tone, “by now we all know that this baka persists on being so pessimist in order to defend himself from being hurt by letting his hopes up when there is a possibility that things go wrong at the end”

Edna kept having dinner ignoring completely Dezel’s completely red face and the astonished expressions of the rest.

“And that’s our Edna-chan, ladies and gentlemen: throwing a bomb of psychoanalysis as if it was the most normal thing to do!”

Rose and Lailah began to laugh uncontrollably when Zaveid spoke as if he was introducing Edna for a show while Dezel, who has been about to reply sharply, averted his eyes with certain embarrassment when realizing that he couldn’t deny Edna’s words.

During the last years he had got too used to stop expecting anything in order to reduce his disappointment in case things ended going wrong, so even if he knew that what Lailah had said was the cleverest way to act, he wasn’t sure that he was going to be able to change his way of thinking at that point.

“But well…”, Zaveid surprised Dezel by suddenly enclosing an arm around his neck, “since all of us are a bunch of optimists it’s not that bad to have Dezel-chan here to force us to come back to earth from time to time”

Rose chuckled.

“You’re right. It’s always good to have someone able to see the cons of the situations”

“That’s Mikleo’s specialty as well”, Sorey commented with an animated tone, “he is always finding objections in practically all my ideas”

“H-Hey, that’s not true!”

“Yes, it is, and it’s nothing to be ashamed for”, Sorey insisted with a cheery tone while kissing his boyfriend tenderly.

 “Well, as long as that pessimism doesn’t prevent you from acting when the moment comes it’s not bad to be prudent”, Lailah commented while nodding to herself.

“But still you should learn to see things in a better way”, Dezel exhaled an ‘ouch’ when Edna hit him on the head with her umbrella.

“Wow, Edna, I would have never imagined that you were going to say something like that”, Rose said with a chuckle, “you used to be exactly like Dezel in your opinions”

Edna shrugged before beginning to eat again.

“That baka is the one to blame for that”, she said simply using her chin to point at Zaveid, who just showed an incredibly satisfied smile, and Dezel realized at that moment that he hadn’t asked Zavei anything about the time Edna and he had been traveling alone, at least not in detail, so he took note of that to question him in the future.

“Okay, guys, let’s push the serious conversations aside and let’s eat. Tomorrow is going to be a long…Lailah, why are you laughing?”

“Because you always says things like that, Rose-san”, Lailah pointed out with a chuckle.

“Yes, it’s going to end becoming your catchphrase”, Sorey agreed with an amused tone.

“‘ _Okay, guys, let’s (insert action here). Tomorrow is going to be a long day_ ’”, Edna repeated with a monotone tone, “it’s a little long but it suits you rather well…”

“Edna-chan, you have to put more enthusiasm when saying it if you want to mimic Rose-chan well”

“Yeah, try to use so much enthusiasm that it ends being almost irritant…”

 “Oh, jeez, shut up already, you idiots!”, Rose exclaimed grabbing both of her red cheeks between her hands in an unexpected cute gesture that caused everyone to begin to laugh, Dezel included.

“Okay, guys, let’s eat already!”, Zaveid exclaimed on purpose, causing Rose to hit him on the arm even if she had ended laughing as well.

An hour later they had already finished so everyone went to their caravans, the tiredness finally reaching them.

“Ooooh yes, I was dying to lie down like this~!”, Zaveid purred with satisfaction while letting all his weight fall into the bed.

“Hey, don’t take up all the space for yourself”

Zaveid let out a soft grunt of protest before turning to one of his sides, allowing Dezel to pass over him in order to take his usual place on the bed next to the wall.

“Damn, what a day”, Zaveid exhaled while yawning for hundredth time.

“Tsk, don’t protest. I remind you that I’ve been the one in accompanying Rose to go shopping”

Zaveid chuckled.

“Bah, I’m sure that you have enjoyed more than you are willing to admit”, Zaveid said with an already sleepy tone.

Some minutes later Zaveid was already snorting softly, sleeping peacefully with his back turned to Dezel, and this one was about to fall asleep too when suddenly an unexpected sound caught his attention, making him be completely awake again.

“Oi, have you heard that?”, Dezel said, patting accidentally Zaveid’s ass to wake him up even if he was aiming to the leg. He held his breath expecting a (this time deserved) teasing comment but fortunately Zaveid was _really_ asleep because he just mumbled something unintelligible before turning to look at Dezel, his eyes just half-opened.

“Mmmm? Hear what?”, Zaveid asked, still in a daze. 

Dezel remained silent, trying to pinpoint that that sounds again, and after some seconds he heard it again.

“That”, he said with an impatient tone when realizing that Zaveid had been about to fall asleep again, “it sounds like a pained animal. Maybe I should go check the dodos and the lake-horses just in case they…”

“Wait, let me hear it too”, Zaveid interrupted him, finally completely awake, and Dezel felt his heart skip a beat when feeling Zaveid leaning over him.

“What the…?”

“Easy Dezel-chan”, Zaveid said with an amused tone, “I just want to lean my ear on the wall to try to hear the sound that you’re talking abo…”

Dezel raised an eyebrow confused when Zaveid stopped talking.

“What?”, Dezel felt Zaveid’s body trembling against his back, as if he was suppressing a laugh, “Zaveid, what…?”

“Dezel-chan, please, listen to you ‘pained animal’ again”, Zaveid said, his tone strained for the effort not to laugh yet.

Dezel frowned before approaching his ear more to the wall, and then he felt his cheeks heating up when realizing that the sounds that were coming from the other side definitely didn’t belong to an animal, and now that he remembered what caravan was just next to his, the noises that he had initially mistaken as whimpers coming from a hurt animal now sounded more like human whines trying to be suppressed.

“It can’t be…”, Dezel said with a mortified tone that caused Zaveid finally burst out laughing.

“Oh damn, tomorrow I’m going to tell Mikleo that he sounds like a ‘pained animal’ when he is having sex with Sorey…”

“Wait a minute”, Dezel said, blushing even more, “we don’t know if that’s what they are doing, maybe they are just…”

At that moment a whine louder than the others sounded in the middle of the night, and Dezel could hear almost perfectly Sorey saying something like ‘ _Sssh_ , Mikleo lower your voice!’

“Okay, they are having sex”, Dezel said with a neutral tone that caused Zaveid to laugh again, “damn, if tomorrow they protest for being tired I’m going to tell them a couple of things”

“Nah, they seem to be enjoying themselves so much, I don’t think that they’ll complain…”

“ _Zaveid_ …”

“What?  It’s the truth”, Zaveid commented with a cheery tone, “and come on, don’t tell me that you are not happy for them. Specially for Mikleo-chan. With all the time he had been after Sorey-chan he deserved to have some fun”

Dezel gulped, feeling his heart beating faster suddenly. Damn, he didn’t know if Zaveid had said that as an indirect but…

“Dezel-chan, don’t tense up, I’m not using Mikleo as an excuse to speak about myself”

“I-I haven’t said anything like that!”, Dezel protested.

“Yep, but I know how prone you are to over-think everything I say”, Zaveid said with a joking tone that caused Dezel to snort to hide his embarrassment for having been read so easily, “but please, feel free to admit at any moment that you are willing to test how good I keep being in bed. I really want to try with you some new postures that I’ve had in min…”

Dezel slapped Zaveid’s leg with force, causing the older man to exhale an ‘ouch’ between laughs.

“Idiot”, Dezel said, but there was a hint of a smile on his face when keeping talking with an ironic one, “sorry to disappoint you but I’m not willing to let you prove your weird techniques with me yet”

There was a silence that made Dezel think for a moment that Zavied had fallen asleep again. And just when he was about to ask Zaveid if he was still awake the man spoke.

“Dezel-chan…you’ve just said ‘ _yet_ ’?”

It was more an affirmation than a question. Dezel gulped. Shit. Damn subconscious of his.

“Umh…”, Dezel insulted himself when he had to clear his throat to speak, and even then he couldn’t help to blab instead of talking like a normal person, “y-yeah, well, I’ve said that, but…”

Zaveid interrupted him with a soft chuckle.

“Okay, Dezel-chan, confess it: today you wanted to test my self-control, right?”

Dezel frowned, honestly confused.

“Why?”

Zaveid chuckled again before forcing Dezel to be ‘looking’ at him, causing the younger man to gulp again when feeling Zaveid’s face so close to his own.

“Well, first you undress yourself in front of me without warning… then you let that ‘ _yet_ ’ slide indicating me that there’s a possibility of us ending together again…”, Dezel held his breath when feeling Zaveid lean against him ever more to brush his nose softly against his, Zaveid’s tone sounding as playful as always but with a hint of seduction, “damn, Dezel-chan, until now I’ve thought that I was able to resist the temptation but it seems that I overestimated my abilities, because right now I would _really_ kiss you if that didn’t mean to break the promise that I made to you”

Dezel let out the breath that he hadn’t realized he had been holding.

Damn, he knew how hell of a kisser Zaveid was and a part of him really wanted to remember once again how incredibly good it felt, but besides his doubts about letting that happen (because that would mean that he had accepted to be by Zaveid’s side again and as he himself had admitted he wasn’t sure about doing that _yet_ ) there was something that Zaveid had just mentioned that had bothered him and that he wanted to clear up.

 “Wait…are you saying that when you’ve practically run out of our caravan before was because I was _changing_?”

Zaveid exhaled an amused chuckle.

“God, Dezel-chan, you’re too cute when you’re oblivious…”

“Don’t call me cute!”, Dezel protested, before adding with a sincere surprised tone, “but I don’t understand, I’ve done nothing in order to provoke you so…”

“I know, Dezel-chan, but I’m afraid that seeing you remove your t-shirt like that before pushing your hair backwards with that incredibly sensual gesture is enough to tempt me immensely. So yes, I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve been forced to run away in order to prevent my primal impulses to show”

After Zaveid spoke there was rather long silence, and Dezel was still trying to know how to react when Zaveid spoke again.

“I’m the best incrementing the awkwardness of the situation, right?”

Dezel couldn’t help to chuckle when hearing Zaveid speaking with a purposely proud tone, but still he could feel guiltiness invading him.

“Zaveid, I’m…”, Dezel gulped, “I’m sorry, really, I didn’t want to…I mean, it just didn’t occur to me that I was…”

“Seducing me?”, Zaveid completed with a tone that caused Dezel to gulp again.

“Yeah”, Dezel muttered before exhaling a sigh, “sorry, sometimes I forget that I’m the only one who can’t see the others, so I didn’t think that…umh…undressing myself was going to…”

“I know it, kid”, Zaveid interrupted him with a reassuring tone, bumping Dezel’s forehead with his own affectionately, “as I’ve said I am the only one at fault for getting aroused just for seeing my former lover half-naked”

“You know that saying that doesn’t help to make this situation less awkward, right?”

“I see”, Zaveid said to himself thoughtfully before adding with a causal tone, “then I suppose that admitting that the sight of your nipples erected because of the cold was incredibly arousing will definitely make it worse, right?”

“ _ZAVEID_!!”

Zaveid began to laugh while trying to avoid Dezel’s hits and pushes, and although at first Dezel tried to keep an irritated attitude while trying to make the older man fall, at the end he found himself fighting not to laugh as well, and in fact when he finally managed to make Zaveid hit the floor with a loud bump he couldn’t avoid a triumphant cry.

“Serves you right, jerk!”, Dezel exclaimed with a smirk.

However, when after a couple of seconds Zaveid didn’t reply anything Dezel began to worry. Damn, maybe had he just hurt Zaveid when pushing him out of the bed?

“Zaveid?”, he asked with an uncertain tone while putting his head out of the side of the bed, and although he realized immediately that he had been fooled because he could perfectly hear the way Zaveid was suppressing a laugher, he couldn’t react in time and consequently Zaveid could grab him by his shoulders with no effort to push him out of the bed as well, making him exhale a shocked cry while falling over Zaveid, who managed to catch him in the air to turn them over, ending Dezel against the floor and Zaveid pining him.

“Dezel-chan, that high pitched cry has been extremely cute…”

“Bastard…”, Dezel hissed while blushing lightly with embarrassment when hearing Zaveid’s extremely amused tone, and as revenge before Zaveid could react he incorporated the fastest he could while grabbing the older man’s shoulders in the process, and since Zaveid wasn’t expecting such a violent reaction the impulse that Dezel was carrying was enough to make Zaveid fall backwards against the floor with Dezel over him, straddling him.

“I dare you to call me _cute_ again”, Dezel threatened with a smile.

However, just Dezel was about to tease Zaveid more, something stopped him from doing so, and that ‘something’ was the sudden realization of the position that Zaveid and he were in, and it seemed that he wasn’t the only one who had just realized it because he could hear Zaveid’s breathing becoming slightly heavier under him, Zaveid’s warm hands shaking slightly on Dezel’s waist, as if he was really trying to keep control.

Dezel gulped, sweat forming on his forehead while desperately trying to think something to say. Something that would break the overwhelming tension that had just settled between them.

Damn, what the hell was he thinking, Zaveid had just confessed that he was easily tempted by him and now they couldn’t be in a more compromised position and…

…and at that moment a loud moan invaded again the silence of the night making the two men exhale respective surprised cries that mixed with the breathless voices that were coming from outside.

“ _Sssh!_ Mikleo… _ngh_ …lower your voice or we’ll… _god, so tight_ …w-we’ll wake up the rest…”

“S-sorry but… _ah_ …it’s so _good_ …!”

At that moment Dezel felt Zaveid’s body begin to shake under him, and when realizing that Zaveid was just making an effort not to burst out laughing all the accumulated tension together with the ridiculous situation they were in snapped and made Dezel unable to suppress the laughter, what obviously made Zaveid immediately join him.

“Okay, now definitely things can’t get more awkward”, Zaveid said between laughs.

Dezel snorted.

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that…”

As if it was to confirm Dezel’s words, at that moment the sound of a bed creaking rather crazily joined the louder and louder moans of the two boys of the neighbor caravan, causing Zaveid to begin to laugh again while Dezel rubbed his forehead with patience while biting his bottom lip in a useless attempt to stop his own laughs.

“Well, we certainly can’t complain”, Zaveid commented with a natural tone, “if I remember correctly we used to be rather loud as well… _ouch_! Oi, why do you hit me?! It’s the truth!”

“Even if it is you didn’t need to mention it”

“Sorry, Dezel-chan, but having you over me in a riding position makes my brain inevitably begin to think about nasty things…”

Dezel blushed intensely when realizing that Zaveid was indeed right.

“Tsk, pervert”, he snapped while finally standing, but he offered Zaveid a hand in order to help the older man to stand up, “keep saying things like that and you’ll really sleep on the floor”

“Hey, it was a joke!”, Zaveid protested, but when seeing Dezel raise his eyebrows with skepticism he added, “okay, you’re right, it wasn’t, but please Dezel-chan don’t make me sleep on the floor today or tomorrow I won’t be in perfect condition to convince the cardinal”

Dezel simply shook his head with resignation before lying on the bed again, patting a couple of times the place next to him indicating Zaveid to join him, thing that the older man immediately did happily.

“Okay then, let’s sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a long day”

Dezel chuckled when identifying those words.

“I’m going to tell Rose that you mock her behind her back”, he threatened, causing Zaveid to laugh as well, and after a moment of hesitation Dezel spoke again, “oi,  Zaveid…”

“Don’t”

Dezel raise his eyebrows surprised.

“What?”

“You were going to apologize, right?”, Zaveid said, causing Dezel to gulp because that was exactly what he had been about to do, “you don’t have anything to say sorry for, Dezel-chan, unless you want to apologize for being so irresistible that sometimes I have to force myself to calm down”

Dezel was about to protest but at that moment Zaveid changed his position and situated just behind him, enclosing an arm over his waist in order to press his body against his, causing Dezel’s breath to hitch.

“Is it okay?”, Zaveid asked with a cautious tone, and after a brief pause Dezel nodded.

“Yeah”,  he said, accommodating himself to the new position, and he had to suppress the urge to let out a satisfied sigh because Zaveid’s warm was one of the best things of sharing the bed with him, and in fact not even one minute was needed so Dezel fell completely asleep between Zaveid’s arms.

Zaveid smiled to himself and dared to deposit a soft kiss on the back of Dezel’s head that caused the younger man exhale a soft sigh even if he was deep asleep. 

“Good night, Dezel-chan”, Zaveid whispered then with his voice full of tenderness before finally closing his eyes, joining Dezel in a calm and deep sleep.

* * *

The next morning Dezel woke up alone, so he deduced that he had slept more than he had expected.

After changing himself he left his caravan to go to the tent where they used to have breakfast to discover that Rose and Edna had just finished eating.

“Good morning, sleepyhead”, Rose greeted Dezel with a smile.

“Hi”, he greeted back with a sleepy tone, suppressing a yawn, “where are Sorey and Mikleo?”

“Probably continuing what they were doing last night”, Edna commented simply, standing up from the table with her used plates to leave them on the little sink where Rose was washing them.

“Oh, so did you hear our loud friends as well?”, Dezel asked sitting down in the place that was just in front of Edna to begin to eat his own breakfast.

“Yeah, we heard them”, Rose nodded with an amused smile before adding with a teasing tone, “it reminded us to the old times…”

“Oi, what do you mean with that?”

“That you and Zaveid were as loud as them if not louder”

Rose began to laugh when seeing Dezel ‘glaring’ at the blonde girl.

“Thanks, Edna, a clarification was completely necessary”

“You’re welcome”, Edna said simply with a dismissive tone while Rose kept laughing at Dezel’s resigned expression.

“Good morning, everyone!”

“Oh, speaking of the devil”, Dezel said when Sorey and Mikleo entered the tent at that moment.

“Hi, guys! Did you _sleep_ well?”, Rose asked with a mischievous smile that caused Mikleo to blush intensely.

“Yeah, really well”, Sorey answered simply with his usual animated tone, “and you?”

“Yes, at the end we got used to have both of your moans as a background music and we could sleep rather well too”

Rose’s previous laughs came back at full force when hearing Edna’s comment. Even Dezel was about to spit the water that he had just drunk when hearing the strangled gasp that Mikleo had let out.

“Sorry”, Sorey said with an embarrassed smile while scratching the back of his head, “we really tried to be silent but…”

“Don’t apologize”, Rose said while winking at Mikleo to reassure the boy a little, “besides, as we were commenting before Edna and I are used to have loud neighbors”

“Yes, you’ll see how funny it will be when Dezel and Zaveid finally are together. We are going to have not one but _two_ different moan concerts enlivening our nights…”

Rose had to stop washing the dishes not to break a plate because of the spasms of laughter that were shaking her body.

“Mikleo”, Dezel said with a tone full of resignation, “would you like to have breakfast at my caravan?”

“Thank you, Dezel, it sounds incredibly good”

“Hey, wait, we were just joking!”, Rose exclaimed still laughing while running after Dezel and Mikleo who were already leaving in an hurry towards Dezel’s caravan in an attempt to avoid the woman’s jokes,  “come on, I promise that Edna and I will behave from now on so…”

Rose shut up so suddenly that Dezel and Mikleo stopped on their tracks.

“What’s wrong, Rose?”, Dezel said when detecting some tension on the girl.

“Oh, umh…”, Rose began with a confused tone, “it’s Lailah and Zaveid. They have just left Pendrago and are walking towards here”

“Already?”, Dezel asked with surprise.

“Yes, Rose is right”, Mikleo agree before adding with a tone full of concern, “and they look rather serious”

“Well, let’s not jump to conclusions yet”, Rose said, forcing an animated tone that sounded way more strained than it should, “I’ll go to warn Edna and Sorey”

Dezel gulped, forcing himself to wait until hearing the news that Zaveid and Lailah brought before beginning to think in the worst case scenarios, but the fact that Lailah _and_ specially Zaveid looked serious definitely wasn’t a good signal.

It only took Zaveid and Lailah little more than a minute to reach the camp where all the group was waiting for them, and even if everyone was trying to apparent to be calm the tension that had settled had become practically unbearable by when Lailah and Zaveid finally approached them.

“Okay, snap it”, Edna said without letting the newcomers time to even say ‘hello’.

There was a little pause on which Dezel deduced that Zaveid and Lailah had looked at each other in order to decide who was going to speak first. At the end it was Lailah the one who begun.

“Alright”, she said with an obviously calculated calm tone, “the good news is that the Cardinal allows us to perform in the city. She is going to lend us the main plaza to make our exhibition and she has also rented some rooms at the inn for us so we can rest there instead of doing it outside”

There was a rather long silence.

“Okay, if the good news are _that_ good I don’t want to hear how horrible are the bad ones”, Rose said with a nervous laugh.

“There isn’t exactly bad news”, Lailah cleared up, “it’s just that there are two conditions that we must fulfill if we want to have the opportunity to participate in the competition that will decide what the best circus is”

“Okay, and what the hell are those conditions?”, Dezel snapped with impatience.

“Well…”, Zaveid continued speaking in Lailah’s place, his tone unreadable, “the first condition is that we have to perform tomorrow night, and we have to have the approbation of (at least)one of the heads of the two factions that rule Pendrago to be able to keep participating in the competition”

“That means that Sergei-san, or the Cardinal, or both have to consider that our show is worthy enough”, Lailah clarified.

“Okay, that condition it’s not that bad then”, Rose said with a relieved tone, “with all the shows that we’ve done until plus Mikleo’s new performance there’s no way that we won’t manage to pass, right?”

Rose’s added the last word with an uncertain tone, and after a brief pause Lailah talked.

“You’re right, Rose-san. Our show is rather good as it is. But…”

“…but it’s not enough”, Zaveid completed when seeing Lailah hesitating, “there is a certain performance that we haven’t done yet. A performance that is essential if we want people to consider us a proper circus and that is, indeed, the second condition that we have to fulfil”

Dezel felt his throat getting dry, an incredibly bad feeling invading him.

“Wait…”, Dezel said, his tone barely a whisper, “you don’t mean that…”

Dezel heard Lailah gulp before feeling Zaveid’s hand settling over his shoulder, and it was the first time that that extra weight bothered him.

“Yes, Dezel-chan. If we want to beat Hedalf, we have to recover our tightrope walking show”

Dezel felt his heart practically stop, cold sweat covering his whole body.

“No”, Dezel exhaled while pushing Zaveid’s hand away with a rude movement, the panic appearing on his voice, “no, I can’t do that”

“Dezel-chan…”

“I can’t do that, okay?”, Dezel practically snarled, and even if he cleared his throat when speaking again the trembling of his voice kept being embarrassingly evident, “We…we have to think another alternative or…”

“There isn’t any other alternative, Dezel”, Dezel gulped when Zaveid said his name without adding termination, because damn, that meant that Zaveid was being really serious about what he was saying.

“Zaveid-san is right, Dezel-san”, Lailah said, her voice sounding apologetic, “if we don’t make that show, there is no way that they allow us to keep competing”

Dezel clenched his hands into fists with such force that his palms began to hurt.

Damn.

Damn, he should have been prepared for such a blow. After all, everything had been going too well until then so that could only mean that something bad, really bad, was going to happen. 

“Dezel-chan…”, Zaveid placed his hand over Dezel’s arm this time, but when seeing the way Dezel almost flinched at the contact he removed it immediately, “look, I know how hard it must be for you to do that show but…”

“No, Zaveid, if you knew how hard it is, you wouldn’t be asking me to do it”

Dezel’s voice carried such desperation that deep guiltiness and pain showed on Zaveid’s expression.

“You…”, Dezel gulped, fighting to put his feelings into words, “you don’t know how frustrating it is to try to do something that you used to love and being unable to do it. And I’ve tried it. A lot of times. During the first year after Edna and you left, I didn’t stop trying for even one fucking day. Rose and Lailah can confirm you that if you don’t believe me. But…”, Dezel exhaled an empty laugh full of sorry and self-hate, “but I couldn’t. Every time that I placed a foot on the rope, it was as if I could _see_ again everything. And I could see it so damn perfectly that it seemed as if I was there again. I could see Lafarga falling in front of my eyes. I could see him lying down there completely lifeless. I could see your face showing suffering and desperation because there was nothing that you could do. And I could see Edna crying when Eizen fell as well”

When Dezel stopped to take air, he could hear something similar to a sob coming from Rose’s direction, but he ignored it and kept talking. He had to finish what he had started to say.

“Every damn time, I saw all that, as if I was forced to revive that day over and over again. So…”, Dezel approached Zaveid again, “if you really want to come back to be a proper circus and to have any opportunity to beat that bastard by doing that show, I hope you’re disposed to perform alone because there is no way that I do it”, Dezel let out a shaky sigh before leaning his forehead briefly over Zaveid’s shoulder, the sudden vulnerable gesture causing Zaveid to gulp, “I’m sorry. Really. But I’m just too weak”

Without letting Zaveid time to say anything Dezel walked out of the camp, ignoring the voices of the rest that were calling his name,  because there was no way that he could remain in that camp a single more second.

After entering Pendrago, he walked until reaching the inn, praying that the Cardinal hadn’t been lying  about their rooms reservation, and fortunately she hadn’t because the moment he mentioned that he was a member of the Windriders Circus the man gave him a key of one of the individual rooms without asking him anything.

Dezel entered his room and closed the door with the key before finally lying down on the bed, and it was at that moment when all the accumulated tension and frustration hit them at full force, causing him to begin to cry like he hadn’t done in years.

“Sorry guys…”, Dezel muttered to himself through gritted teeth, settling one of his forearms over his closed eyes while tears kept falling down his cheeks,  “at the end, I’ve not fucking changed at all”

* * *

“I don’t care what you say, I’m going after him”

“Rose-san…”

“We can’t leave him like this!”, Rose practically cried while trying to get herself free from Zaveid’s grip on her arm, “damn it, Zaveid, let me go, you should be the one in backing me up in this. We have to bring him back. We have…”

Rose shut up with a gasp when Zaveid pulled her into his arms in a hug.

“Rose-chan, if we are going to see Dezel-chan like this it would be worse”, Zaveid said simply.

Rose opened her eyes at her maximum when realizing that Zaveid’s tone was shaking lightly, and the only thing that she managed to do was to let out a trembling sigh while hugging Zaveid back, burying her head on his chest while beginning to cry silently.

“That baka…”, Edna said opening her umbrella rudely to hide her face, although her trembling bottom lip grabbed between her teeth was still visible, “…if I discover that he is blaming himself for what happened to my brother I swear that I’ll kill him”

“Yes, I’m afraid despite all the times I’ve tried to convince him that it’s not his fault,  he still feels responsible for what happened”, Lailah commented with a resigned tone.

Zaveid let out a long deep breath before finally letting Rose go, although he made sure to put a weak smile on the girl’s face by ruffling her hair with affection.

“Leave it to me. I promise you that I’ll manage to convince him”, Zaveid said, his nonchalant tone back at full force and his eyes shining with determination, “and the show that we’ll manage to do tomorrow would be one of the best of the Windriders Circus”

Lailah chuckled when hearing Zaveid’s confident words.

“Very well, Zaveid-san. If there’s someone who can help Dezel-chan, that’s you without any doubt”

“And please, let that baka now that my umbrella is going to tell him a couple of things when he comes back”,

Zaveid laughed, putting one of his hands on his hip while using the other one to point as his own chest with his thumb.

“Don’t worry. Let everything into Zaveid ‘of the Promise’ capable hands”, he said with a reassuring tone.

Rose dried her eyes while smiling again, and the expression that was adorning her now slightly reddened face was her usual enthusiastic one.

“In that case, while you put some sense in that knucklehead maybe we should go to see Sergei to ask him help to obtain the materials for the tightrope show”

“Good idea”, Lailah said with a smile, “I’m sure that he will be delighted to help. He didn’t look very satisfied when hearing the Cardinal’s conditions”

“Okay, but before going…”, Zaveid approached Sorey and Mikleo, who had remained all that time in silence not knowing what to say or do, to situate himself between the pair in order to enclose his arms around their shoulders, “I think that these kids have some questions to be answered”

Lailah smiled and nodded.

“Leave it to me”, she said simply, fixing her clear eyes on the suddenly nervous kids.

“Well…”, Sorey began with an hesitant tone once Zaveid, Rose and Edna had already left towards Pendrago, “it’s true that Mikleo and I have some questions but…”

“…but we don’t want to force you remember unpleasant things”, Mikleo said hurriedly, “I mean, we have deduced that something bad, really bad, happened some time ago so it’s not necessary…”

“No, Mikleo-san, it _is_ necessary you to know”,  Lailah interrupted him, “you are now part of the Windriders Circus, part of our family, and consequently you have all the rights to know what happened in the past and what lead to the current state of the circus”

Sorey and Mikleo couldn’t help to smile when hearing Lailah call them ‘family’ before finally nodding, their eyes showing barely suppressed curiosity.

“So Sorey-san, Mikleo-san, put yourself comfortable”, Lailah looked at Sorey and Mikleo alternatively, a soft smile appearing on her face, “I’m going to tell you everything. Not just about what happened five years ago. But also how the Windriders Circus began”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And finally, the arc of the past begins with the next chapter :) I estimate that it will last two or three chapter at most and that the rate of the fic will very likely change during that time ;)
> 
> As always, thank you to the ones who comments and leave kudos ^^ Hope you have enjoyed the chapter (despite the angst -.-) and feel free to leave any feedback that you consider necessary :)


	6. Past Arc - Part 1: Meeting the Windriders

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since not much is said about Eizen in ToZ, physically I imagine him like Jack Vessalius, one of my favorite characters of ‘Pandora Hearts’ manga, and in this fic I consider that he is a couple of years older than Zaveid and Lailah :) 
> 
> WARNING: I've added the tag 'Sad Childhood'. There is NOT Childhood Sexual Abuse or anything like that but it's still sad, so I warn just in case

**Twelve years ago**

When Dezel found himself with his back turned to the cliff and surrounded by several wolves that were looking at him with the clear intention of having him as their next meal, he accepted that he was going to die. It was as simple as that and he was not going to complain.

After all, death seemed way more appealing than keeping living in that place that he supposedly had to call home.

His life had never been easy. The day of his second birthday, his father abandoned him and his mother because according to him, Dezel’s atypical grey hair that looked almost green in the sun was a clear proof that his wife had cheated on him, even if the woman had been always faithful to him during all their marriage.

When the news spread, everyone in the village where Dezel and his mother lived, an isolated place in the mountains in which tradition played an extremely important role in the lives of all the residents,  turn their backs to her, since a sin like infidelity was taken very seriously.

 As a result, Dezel’s childhood was really hard. His mother, who had always been a mentally and physically weak person, worsened up immensely, what forced Dezel to begin to work instead of going to school since she couldn’t take care of practically anything by herself, and Dezel accepted that responsibility without protesting even once. After all, as his mother had taught him, kids had to be obedient and take care of their parents when they couldn’t do it by themselves.

They managed to keep going during almost four years, with Dezel gaining practically all the money that they needed to subside. But year by year, his mother became more irritable and unhappy, and it was a matter of time that she began to blame her son for her husband’s abandon.

Even then, Dezel didn’t protest. After all, she was his mother, so deep inside she had to keep loving him even if the only words that left her mouth at that point were full of recrimination and scorn. She was just sad for his father. That was all. She would be better with the time. So he put up with her mother’s hate attacks and occasional hits (the woman was really weak so fortunately the hits just hurt emotionally) and kept working to keep them both alive.

Then, just some months later, and ignoring completely Dezel’s begs and protests, his mother married again with a man that, according to her, was going to finally make things go better.

Of course, it wasn’t like that. The man, who boasted of being an important merchant, was just a conman that used all the money that Dezel managed to bring home to waste it in bad treats that just in one of five cases were beneficial for them.

Even then, Dezel ended accepting that situation, and spent the next three years having that man under his ceiling because somehow his mother looked happier than before even if the man who was by her side was a complete disgrace. Besides, she had stopped hitting him, she had begun to smile again and she even gave him a gift for his ninth birthday. The first gift of all his life.

But then, just some months later, his stepfather made a deal that went bad, really bad, causing them to lose almost everything that they had gained until then. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the man began to discard his rage and frustration on his mother.

At first it was just verbally, but one day the man decided to go further and raised his hand to hit his mother so Dezel, in an impulse to defend her, jumped over the man.

And what did she mother do?

She hit him. _Him_. And then she began to cry, saying that a child must never raise a hand to his parents, and when that man began to hit him as punishment she didn’t do anything to protect him. She just stood there, staring at him being beaten up without barely blinking, just repeating that sentence over and over again: _kids must never raise a hand to his parents, kids must never raise a hand to his parents_ …

And then, at that moment, while lying on the floor with his nose bleeding and all his body crying in pain because of the hits and kicks, Dezel understood it.

He had been blind. His mother had never loved him. Or well, definitely she didn’t love him anymore since she preferred to protect the man who treated her like shit than her own son, so with his last ounce of strength he managed to stand up and ran away from that house, from his ‘home’, from his village, from everything, and in his escape he had the bad luck of stepping in wolf territory and that lead to the situation he was in right then.

Dezel let out a long resigned breath and closed his eyes, hearing the wolves’ grunts become closer and more aggressive, but he hadn’t any forces left to try to escape anymore. He was too tired after having been running for hours, and even if he had run away because he couldn’t keep being in that place for another second longer, he hadn’t anywhere to go, so maybe the best solution was to accept his fate and let those wolves eat him.

But then, just when a wolf was about to jump over him, with his eyes still closed Dezel heard a loud hit and the animal exhaling a whine that caused Dezel to open his eyes again.

And then he saw him.

It was a boy. A teenager boy with his white hair pulled up in a ponytail had just knocked up one the wolves that had been about to attack him and now was looking at him with a wide smile.

“Okay, kid, brace yourself!”, the boy shouted running towards him.

Dezel hadn’t had time to react when the boy suddenly grabbed him and jumped from the cliff. He could just shout in panic, embracing the boy’s body with all his might while falling into a sure death.

But he was mistaken, and just when Dezel closed his eyes again really thinking that his time had come, the stranger threw in the air something similar to a thread that was caught in the rocks of the cliff, making them end suspended just a couple of meters above the ground safe and sound.

“Wow, that was close”, the boy exclaimed with a laugh before pulling the threat down to land on the ground while Dezel kept clinging at his body trembling like a leaf, his eyes still shut closed.

“Oi, kid, open your eyes”, the boy said with an amicable tone, “the worst has already passed”

Dezel forced himself to open his eyes to find himself staring at the boy’s face, and the last thing that crossed his mind before fainting was that he had never seen a warmer smile in his entire life.

* * *

Dezel recovered his conscience half-an-hour or so later. He opened his eyes slowly to discover that someone was carrying him, and that in fact he had his arms and legs surrounding that someone’s body rather tightly.

“Oh, so you finally wake up”

Dezel turned his face to the side and when seeing the face of the stranger he recognized the boy that had just saved him from the wolves back then.

“How are you feeling?”, the boy asked, “do you think that you can stand?”

Dezel hesitated a little before nodding softly.

“Very well”, the boy said, placing him on the ground.

Dezel took his time to observe his surroundings. They were in some kind of camp with caravans and tents, and although it seemed to be a place ready to accommodate several people, at that moment there was no one in sight.

After looking around for some more seconds, Dezel fixed his eyes on the boy.

He had to be around sixteen years old, and besides the white hair that had caught Dezel’s attention (he had thought until now that he was the only one with the ‘luck’ of having been born with a weird hair color), the boy’s eyes had a color that he had never seen before. They were bright orange, like the color of the sunset, and Dezel couldn’t help to wonder if that boy had suffered as many problems as him for having such strange (but extremely beautiful) color of hair and eyes.

“So…”, the boy crouched in order to be at the same level than Dezel and leant his forearms over his flexed legs, his smile still in place, “what’s your name? Mine is Zaveid. Nice to meet you”

The boy offered Dezel a hand and although Dezel hesitated at first he ended shaking it while answering with a cautious voice.

“Dezel”

Zaveid smiled even more widely before nodding to himself.

“Dezel, welcome to the Windriders camp. Let’s warn the rest so that they can meet you too, kay?”

Zaveid stood up as well. He put both of his hands on either side of his mouth and cried with a loud tone that caused Dezel to jump startled.

“Guys!!!! I’m home!!!”

Just a couple of seconds later a figure appeared from one of the tents with such a speed that Dezel automatically hid behind Zaveid.

“Oh, so you have finally come back”

Dezel put his head out a little to see that the voice belonged to a boy of similar age than Zaveid. He was wearing his long blond hair pushed back in a braid and his beautiful turquoise eyes were fixed on Zaveid with a hint of reproach on them.

“Hey Eizen”, Zaveid said with a cheery tone.

“Don’t ‘hey’ me”, the boy named Eizen said, crossing his arms in front of his chest, “you know that Lafarga doesn’t want us to go hunting if he’s not around, especially if it’s beginning to get dark”

“Hey, I haven’t gone to hunt. I just wanted to test my new pendulums”

Eizen exhaled a patient sigh while rubbing his eyes.

“And you couldn’t possibly wait until tomorrow? Or testing them in the camp instead of going outside?”

Zaveid shrugged.

“Yeah, I suppose I could but I also wanted to go for a walk since today the time was awesome. And besides…”, Dezel was taken by surprise when suddenly Zaveid stepped aside so that Eizen could see him, “…thanks to my little escapade I’ve found something really interesting”

Dezel gulped with nervousness when Eizen fixed his eyes on him with astonishment, but just when the blond boy was going to ask him something another voice came out from the other tent. 

 “Zaveid!”

At that moment another person began to approach the group. This time it was a girl. She also looked around Zaveid’s age, she was wearing her rather long white hair in a side ponytail and was accompanied by two younger girls.

“Zaveid, you know that at night there are dangerous animal all around so why have you…”, the girl stopped talking immediately when seeing Dezel, her eyes opening with surprise mimicking Eizen’s expression while the other girls fixed their attention on Dezel as well.

One of them was blond like Eizen and had his same turquoise eyes, so Dezel immediately deduced that they were siblings. She looked a year or so older than Dezel, wore her hair really short, almost like a boy, and although her expression was completely imperturbable her eyes were fixed intensely on him, as if she wanted to know everything about him without asking.

The other girl, on the contrary, looked a couple of years younger than Dezel and wore her bright red hair in two pigtails. She was grabbing the older girl’s hand and her blue eyes scanned Dezel without any shame, stopping at his face to show him a wide smile while waving her hand at him, thing that caused Dezel to blush lightly.

“Zaveid, who is this boy?”, the older girl asked with confusion.

“His name is Dezel”, Zaveid said, “I just found him about to be attacked by wolves so I brought him here”

“Oh, that’s terrible!”, the girl approached Dezel, “hello, Dezel. My name is Lailah. Are you alright? Have you been hurt somewhere?”

Lailah extended her arm to touch Dezel’s cheek but this one unconsciously flinched, causing Lailah’s eyes to open wide with surprise before interchanging a look with Eizen and Zaveid, who looked at her back with sudden serious expressions on their faces, as if they had understood Dezel’s situation with that simple reflex.

“It’s okay, sweetie, I’m not going to hurt you”, Lailah said with a soft voice, smiling with such reassurance that Dezel averted his eyes embarrassed, not used to that kind treatment.

“Say, Dezel”, Eizen said then, his tone sounding as soft as the one Lailah had used, “where are you from? Do you have a place to come back?”

Dezel gulped but almost immediately shook his head negatively with vigor.

“No. Not anymore”, he said, forcing himself to adopt a determined tone and failing because he couldn’t help to prevent a slight trembling.

“Okay, then you’re with us now”, Zaveid stated while ruffling Dezel’s hair, causing this one to bend down a little because of the weight.

“Zaveid, don’t be so rude!”, Lailah exclaimed before looking at Dezel again, “tell me, Dezel: would you like that I prepare a bath for you while Zaveid and Eizen make dinner? You look exhausted so it will be a really good way to relax”

Dezel’s eyes opened wide, unable to answer to that sudden offer.

“I’ll take you there!”, the redhead girl said suddenly with a smile while grabbing Dezel’s hand, “oh, and my name is Rose and I’ll be your friend from now on”

Dezel blushed intensely when hearing the girl speak with such spontaneity.

“And this is Edna”, Eizen said patting the blond girl’s head softly, “she is my sister. She a little shy but I think she is interested in being your friend as well”

Dezel turned to look at Edna who immediately crossed her arms over her tiny chest while averting her eyes and muttering an almost inaudible ‘ _nice to meet you_ ’ that Dezel immediately returned with the same tone of voice.

“Very well, Rose, lead the way then”, Lailah said with a cheery voice, “meanwhile I’ll go to look some clothes for Dezel. Zaveid, Eizen, would you mind if I borrow some old clothes from your wardrobe”

“Of course we don’t mind”, Eizen said with a smile.

“Yeah, as long as you don’t throw out my hot magazines again… _ouch_!”, Zaveid exclaimed in pain while rubbing the side of his arm where Lailah had just hit him.

“It’s your fault for having such indecorous things in plain view”

“Come on, for once I forget to hide them after using them… _OUCH_!”

“Zaveid, you should learn to shut up”, Eizen said with a stoic tone while Zaveid grabbed this time his head between his hands.

“Why is she hitting him?”, Dezel asked Rose with confusion.

“Oh, I don’t know, but if Lailah is hitting Zaveid he’ll deserve it for sure”, Rose said with a confident tone before beginning to walk towards one of the caravans without letting go Dezel’s hand for even one second.

After entering the caravan, Rose opened a tiny room that it was more like a cubicle that contained a small bathtub and began to fill it with water.

“W-wait!”, Dezel exclaimed stopping Rose when the bathtub had barely twenty centimeters of water, “you don’t have to fill it more”

At that moment Lailah entered the caravan with several clothes on her hands to find Rose staring at Dezel with a surprised expression on her face.

“What’s wrong, Rose?”

“Umh…Dezel says that he doesn’t need more water but…”, Rose didn’t complete the sentence but the way she pointed with her head to the almost empty bathtub was enough to make Lailah understand.

“Dezel, don’t worry about wasting water”, Lailah said with a reassuring smile while opening the tap again, “we have enough for everyone, right Rose?”

The girl nodded enthusiastically while Dezel looked the two girls alternatively with astonishment. At home he had got used to use extremely few water in order to save money so for him it was extremely surprising that those people were willing to waste _their_ water on him.  

“Alright”, Lailah said when the bathtub was almost completely full, “it’s ready. Rose, sweetie, can you go with Edna to prepare a bed for Dezel in the guys’ caravan?”

“Okay”, the girl said obediently before leaving the caravan. waving her hand to Dezel as a goodbye.

“Alright”, Lailah faced Dezel again, “then let’s remove these clothes”

When hearing that, Dezel immediately stepped back while gripping his own clothes with force, making Lailah open her eyes wide with surprise before speaking with an even softer tone.

“Dezel, sweetie, it’s okay ”, she insisted, approaching Dezel slowly to settle her hand on his cheek tenderly, and Dezel could feel himself relaxing immediately at the contact, “come on. Raise your arms. I’ll remove your t-shirt”

After some seconds Dezel nodded and did as Lailah said, forcing himself to keep his face neutral despite the fact that making such a wide gesture hurt him a little, and when the shirt was removed leaving his upper half exposed Lailah couldn’t help to let out a gasp, her eyes opening wide in horror when seeing the bruises that were covering Dezel’s body.

Dezel gulped an averted his eyes. For that reason he didn’t want Lailah’s help, she was going to despise him for sure. Like the people that had always murmured when seeing the marks on his face when her mother managed to hit him with enough force to leave a bruise.  

At that moment Dezel heard a sob, and when he looked at Lailah his eyes opened wide when seeing the girl covering her mouth with a hand while silent tears fell from her eyes.

“I’m…”, Dezel said in a panic, thinking that he was the one to blame for Lailah’s reaction, “I’m sorry, I’m…”

Dezel’s next words disappeared in the air when Lailah hugged him tightly, all the tightly she could without hurting him.

“You’re okay now, sweetie”, she whispered with such affection and care that Dezel felt a lump forming in his throat, “you’re okay now”

And then, at that precise moment, when hearing those words being spelled with such sincere affection Dezel found himself shedding all the suppressed tears that he had been accumulating during all those years, not caring about how loud he was being, nor about how much he was dirtying Lailah’s clothes, nor about anything. And when, after an almost complete minute, he finally stopped crying, it was as if a heavy weight had finally being lifted from his chest.

“Damn, we just leave you alone a couple of minutes and you manage to make the poor kid cry, you are a lost case”

Dezel was about to defend Lailah in a hurry when hearing Zaveid speak from the now opened door of the caravan but he stopped when Lailah let out a trembling laugh.

“Shut up, idiot”, Lailah said letting Dezel go, and this one was about to ask confused why Lailah had just laughed when Zaveid had just accused her unfairly when the boy crouched in front of him, smiling but with his eyes deathly serious.

“Dezel, this crybaby of a woman is totally right. You’re with us from now on, and none of us is going to allow anyone hurt you again. And in case someone dares to try… ”, Zaveid settled a hand over Dezel’s small shoulder, “…I’ll stop them with all I have. You have my word. And I _never_ break my promises”

If Dezel thought that he had cried enough he was wrong, because after Zaveid stopped talking he could feel several tears falling from his eyes again while another wave of relief invaded him and without thinking he threw his arms around Zaveid’s neck, causing the boy to fall backwards, ending sitting on the floor.

“Well, it seems that I’m not the only one in making a kid cry”, Lailah said with a triumphant tone, but there was an extremely affectionate smile showing in her face.

“Well, but at least I’m not a crybaby like you”, Zaveid replied back with a teasing tone while hugging Dezel’s as well, using his hand to caress the kid’s trembling back up and down carefully, making Dezel automatically relax when feeling embraced by that extremely warm body.

“Umh…”

Dezel looked at the door to see Rose and Edna standing there.

“Is Dezel okay?”, Rose asked with a worried tone.

“Yes, he was crying a lot”, Edna said with a brusquer tone, but her expression was as concerned as Rose’s one.

“Don’t worry girls, he is perfectly fine, he just needed a good cry, right kid?”, Zaveid said while pinching Dezel’s nose playfully, causing the kid to exhale a chuckle, the first one in a really long time.

“Yes, he is fine, don’t worry”, Lailah said, drying her eyes discreetly not to worry the girls more, “come on, Dezel, enter the bathtub already before the water gets cold. And you…”, Lailah pointed at Zaveid with an accusatory finger, “stop lazing around and help Eizen with the dinner”

“Okaaay, okay”, Zaveid said before stepping outside the caravan, “okay, ladies, you’ll help us as well!”

While saying that Zaveid grabbed Rose with his right arm and Edna with his left one, causing the girls to laugh loudly when he began to run towards the tent where Eizen was preparing dinner.

“Zaveid, careful with them!”, Lailah exclaimed, shaking her head with a resigned smile when hearing the girls cry towards her a loud ‘ _we’re fine!_ ’, “be careful with Zaveid, Dezel”, Lailah said while entering the cubicle with Dezel, since he didn’t mind anymore that Lailah helped him undress, “he is the moooost craziest person among us”

Dezel laughed softly when hearing Lailah’s exaggerated tone.

“He is funny”, he said simply, before adding with a confident tone, “I like him”

Lailah chuckled with amusement while helping Dezel enter the bathtub after removing the rest of his clothes.

“Yes, I don’t know why but something tells me that you’re going to get along extremely well”

* * *

An hour later Dezel finally left the caravan with new clothes and completely refreshed. He and Lailah went to the tent where the rest were already and when Dezel finally entered the delicious aroma of the dinner invaded his nose.

“Dezel! Sit here! We’ve saved you a site!”, Rose said the moment she saw him enter, signaling a site between her and Edna. Zaveid was also sat as well in front of the girls and Eizen had just begun to serve the food.

“Dezel-chan, I’m jealous, you’re having all the girl’s attention”, Zaveid said winking at him, causing Dezel to smile shyly before accepting Rose’s invitation and sitting between the two girls, thing that caused Rose to smile happily and Edna to avert her eyes to the side while blushing a little. 

“Okay, Dezel, here you have”, Eizen said with a smile placing a plate so full that was about to overflow in front of Dezel, whose eyes were about to pop out his face when seeing so much food just for him, “if you want more you only have to ask”

“And if you don’t want so much I can help you finish it… _ouch_!”

“I’ve told you a lot of times not to steal food from the kids”, Lailah said while taking a sit next to Zaveid and accepting the plate that Eizen was offering her with a smile.

“Oh, then since you are a week older than me that means that I can steal from you, right?”, Zaveid replied with a teasing tone while making the gesture of stealing a chip from Lailah’s plate, but when seeing the way Lailah grabbed the fork in a menacing way he immediately retired his hand.

“Hehe, I think Dezel likes the food”, Rose said with a chuckle when seeing the way Dezel was practically devouring the food, his cheeks extremely round since his mouth was completely full.

“S-sorry”, Dezel muttered after gulping loudly, a bright blush adorning his face.

“Don’t apologize, sweetie, eat to your heart content”, Lailah said with a reassuring tone.

“And don’t worry about manners”, Eizen added, throwing a side glance towards Zaveid, “we are used to eat with people who don’t care about proper etiquette at all”

“Mmmffh?”, Zaveid ‘asked’ towards Eizen with a questioning raised eyebrow, his cheeks almost as round as Dezel’s ones.

“Nothing, Zaveid, nothing, just eat and please don’t speak”, Eizen said with a resigned smile while Lailah rolled her eyes with patience.

“Oi”, Dezel almost jumped when suddenly Edna spoke to him, “do you like chips?”

“Umh…yes, I like them”, Dezel answered a little hesitating, not knowing why Edna had asked him that, but when suddenly the girl grabbed her own chips and placed them on Dezel’s plate he understood.

“For you. I don’t like them very much”, Edna said with a brusque tone, leaving Dezel so speechless that he didn’t see the interchange of amused glances that the older ones shared.

“Don’t you like chips, Edna?”, Rose asked with a sincere confused frown, “then why are you always saying Eizen to cook them…?”

“I-I’m not always saying Eizen that!”, Edna protested bright red, and Lailah had to hide a chuckle with a soft cough.

“I hope that Lafarga comes back soon”, Eizen commented after some moments, “the impatience is killing me”

“Bah, you worry too much. I’m totally sure that he’ll bring good news”, Zaveid said with a confident tone that sounded a little forced, as if he was trying to convince himself of his own words.

Dezel looked at them alternatively, wondering who was that Lafarga they had just mentioned, but his unspoken doubts were soon clarified when at that moment a man with long grey hair and a top hat entered the tent.

“Great, it seems that I’ve arrived just in time”, the man said with a candid voice, causing the older ones to turn around immediately with smiles on their faces.

“Oh, welcome!”, Lailah said with a cheery tone.

“Perfect time. We were just talking about you”, Eizen commented with an amused tone while standing up to grab another plate for the newcomer.

“So? How has it gone? You’ve done it, right?”, Zaveid asked with such enthusiasm that Lafarga laughed openly while sitting next to him.

“Be patient, Zaveid. I’m going to tell you everything right now but first…”, Dezel gulped with nervousness when the man fixed his eyes on him, although the fact that he was smiling at him helped him not to be as nervous as he would have been in other case, “…maybe my old eyesight is betraying me but I think that right here there is a guest who I don’t have the pleasure to know yet”

Dezel smiled back, but just when he was about to answer Rose spoke.

“He is Dezel”, Rose said with a hurried tone, “Zaveid found him alone in the forest so can he stay with us from now on, please?”

“Rose, sweetie, let Dezel speak for himself”, Lailah intervened with a smile while Lafarga laughed again, causing Rose to scratch the back of her head with an embarrassed smile.

“Well, Dezel, what do you say?”, Lafarga asked Dezel, “do you want to stay with us?”

Dezel gulped and after a little pause he spoke.

“I would really like to stay”, he admitted, but just when Lafarga was going to speak again he continued, unable to hide his curiosity, “but is it truly okay? I mean, you don’t know anything about my past, or about me, so why do you accept me so easily?”

“The answer is simple, kid”, it was Zaveid who answered instead of Lafarga, his usual smile on his face, “because we don’t mind what kind of past you have”

“And about how you really are, I think that it’s very evident how a good kid you are”, Lailah said with such confidence that Dezel blushed a little.

“Yes, if you weren’t a good person Edna wouldn’t have liked you so fast”, Eizen added with a wink towards his little sister.

“I don’t like him”, Edna immediately said, but when seeing the look that Dezel threw at her he immediately added, “a-although I don’t hate him either”

Everyone laughed when hearing the girl’s choice of words.

“Well, you’ve heard them”, Lafarga said with a smile, “the only thing that matters right now is what you want to do so I’ll ask you again: do you want to stay with us?”

Dezel gulped before nodding effusively.

“Yes. Yes, I want”, he said, unable to prevent his voice from trembling a little with emotion, although the fact that Rose exhaled a happy cry before hugging him with breathtaking force helped him to push back the relieved tears that had been about to appear on his eyes again.

“Careful Rose, if you keep strangling Dezel like that maybe he thinks it twice and leaves”, Zaveid said with a purposely warning tone that caused the girl to immediately let Dezel go with such a funny worried expression that everyone laughed again.

“Congratulations, Dezel”, Eizen said with a happy tone, “now you’re part of the Windriders Camp”

“You’re mistaken, Eizen”, the boy looked at Lafarga with confusion when the man corrected him, “we are not the Windriders Camp anymore”

It was Dezel’s turn to be confused when an expectant silence settled on the table.

“Wait…”, Lailah said with a voice that was barely a whisper, “…does that mean...?”

Lafarga smiled from ear to ear.

“Yes. From now on we are officially the Windriders Circus”

Dezel jumped startled when everyone in the table began to let out shouts of joy.

“Yes!! We did it!!”, Rose exclaimed clapping her hands together, and Dezel was surprised when even Edna showed a happy smile.

“I’ve told you that he was going to make it!”, Zaveid exclaimed with an exaggerate confident tone.

“Yeah, yeah, say whatever you want but right now you were as nervous as the rest of us”, Eizen replied with a triumphant tone.

“Hey, that’s not true!”

“Zaveid, Eizen is right: your legs were trembling so much under the table that all the plates were shaking”

“O-Oi, why do you always side with Eizen and not with me?!”

“Umh, excuse me…”, Dezel asked with an hesitant tone, causing that the older ones finally stopped ‘discussing’, “what is exactly this circus thing about?”

“It’s exactly as it sounds, kid”, Zaveid said with a wide smile, “you’ve just become a member of a circus!”

Dezel’s eyes opened wide in astonishment.

“What?!”, he exclaimed.

“Well, until now we weren’t a proper circus yet”, Eizen explained, “we were still training to become one and doing occasional non-professional shows to gain some experience”

“But since we’ve been improving a lot during these last months we decided to ask for a license that recognized us as a proper circus”, Lailah continued, “so a week or so ago Lafarga contacted with the representatives of the circus association so that they can decide if we were worthy to become a proper circus”

“And as I was expecting from the start we’ve been accepted”, Zaveid said with a proud tone that made Lailah roll her eyes and Eizen exhale a resigned chuckle.

“So what do you say, Dezel?”, Lafarga asked, “are you willing to become a circus performer like us?”

“I-I don’t think that I’m able to do it”, Dezel said nervously before adding with an embarrassed tone, “I’ve never gone to a circus so I don’t know what I would have to do”

“Oh, well…”, Lafarga crossed his arm in front of his chest, his expression indicating that an idea had just come to his mind, “that’s really easy to solve. Guys…”, Lafarga turned to look at the older ones, “why don’t we show Dezel what an _official_ circus does?”

Dezel was surprised when Zaveid, Lailah and Eizen stood up at the same time, their eyes shining with enthusiasm.

“Alright, I’m going first!”, Lailah said immediately before beginning to practically run towards one of the caravans.

“Then I’m going second!”, Eizen said rapidly, making Zaveid exhale a resigned sigh.

“Kay, then I’ll be the last one to close the show brilliantly”, Zaveid said with a wide smile before disappearing with Eizen towards the other caravan.

“Where are they going?”, Dezel asked with confusion, standing up as well when seeing Edna and Rose doing it with expectant expressions on their faces.

“They are going to perform!”, Rose exclaimed with a happy tone.

“What? Now?”, Dezel opened his eyes wide with astonishment.

“Of course”, Lafarga said, “seeing them perform is the best way to help you choose what kind of performer you want to be”

Dezel was about to ask again but he decided that it was better to wait until seeing the show.

Lafarga guided them towards the biggest tent of the camp and when they entered Dezel was surprised to see several benches facing an elevated wood platform that he deduced was the stage where Zaveid, Lailah and Eizen were going to perform.

“Okay, take a site”, Lafarga said once he had sat down, signaling the place next to him, “they are about to enter. Rose…”, Lafarga turned to look at the redhead girl, “can you introduce them as we’ve been practicing?”

Rose immediately nodded with enthusiasm before approaching the platform with small but fast steps.

Dezel obeyed and took a site next to Lafarga while Edna sat down next to him.

“You aren’t going to perform?”, Dezel looked at Lafarga and Edna alternatively with curiosity.

“Well, my show is a little complicated to prepare so it’s better if we leave it for tomorrow”, Lafarga explained, “but Edna…”, Lafarga looked at the blond girl with a smile, “you could show Dezel your show as well”

“Tsk, I still fail too much…”, she muttered with an embarrassed tone that caused Lafarga to laugh.

“That’s not true, Edna. Of course you still fail sometimes but you’re improving really fast”, Lafarga assured with such a sincere tone that the girl showed a tiny smile, “come on, go to grab your things and show Dezel what ‘Early-Bloomer’ Edna can do”

Dezel couldn’t help to show a confused expression when hearing the weird appellative but for the way Edna blushed before nodding and leaving it seemed that she liked it really much.

“She should have more confidence in her skills”, Lafarga said with a smile, “she is way better than she really think it is”

“Umh…”, Lafarga looked at Dezel when the boy began to speak a little hesitantly, “what was that name that you’ve called her?”

“That name? Oh, you mean ‘Early Bloomer’ Edna? It’s her artistic name. Every circus performer has one. And that reminds me…”, Lafarga placed his index finger on Dezel’s chest, “…that you should have one as well. I’ll begin to think in one appropriate for you”

Dezel was about to protest to say that he shouldn’t have a name when he didn’t even know if he was going to be able to be a circus performer but at that moment Lailah, Eizen, Edna and Zaveid entered again, every one of them bringing different things: Lailah several papers, Eizen a long shaft, Edna a little umbrella and Zaveid the weird object with a thread that he had used to save them both when they had fallen (or better said ‘jumped’) from the cliff.

“Okay, we are ready!”, Zaveid exclaimed with a loud tone that caused Lafarga to chuckle.

“Very well. Rose, you can begin with the introduction”

“Y-yes!”, the girl said, situating in the middle of the stage while the rest settled a little behind in the order they were going to perform, and although Dezel could tell from where he was that Rose was nervous she managed to talk with an incredible firm voice, “ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Windriders Circus! I am Rose ‘the Rose’ and I have the honor to present the performers that are going to be with us tonight: Lailah ‘the Pure’, Eizen ‘the Blond Juggler’, ‘Early-Bloomer’ Edna and Zaveid ‘the Ladykiller’!”

“All the names were chosen by me”, Lafarga muttered towards Dezel with a funny proud tone, “they are awesome, right?”

Dezel just smiled a little awkwardly, because honestly he thought the names were a little peculiar. Specially, Rose ‘the Rose’ lacked such originality that it was rather hilarious, and about Zaveid ‘the Ladykiller’ he didn’t even know what it meant but he wasn’t going to say anything. Lafarga looked incredibly happy and convinced about his skill in naming so it would be a pity to destroy that illusion.

“Sooo...”, Dezel focused on the stage again when hearing Rose speak again, “let’s begin with the show of the always fantastic and spectacular Lailah ‘the Pure’”

Dezel gulped, suddenly nervous, and looked at the stage again, determined not to miss even a single detail of the show that was in front of his eyes.

“Okay, Dezel, pay attention”, Lafarga said, his eyes not leaving the stage anymore, “this is what a circus performance is about”

* * *

When the show finally finished, Dezel’s eyes and mouth that had been opened at its maximum during all the performance kept being like that for almost another minute while Rose said the closing words.

“Dezel, if you have liked the performance you should show it by applauding”

Even if Lafarga said it with amusing tone Dezel exhaled a gasp and begin to applaud with such force that his hands began to hurt but he didn’t care. He only knew that all his previous doubts had completely vanished.

He wanted to be part of the Windriders Circus. He wanted to be able to do such breathtaking performances and make people’s heart become hysterically in their chest the same way _his_ heart was beating at that moment.

“Well, I think that Dezel has liked the show”, Eizen commented with a smile when everyone was gathered together again.

“Dezel, you are going to eat a fly if you keep having your mouth so opened”, Zaveid commented with a joking tone.

“It’s…”, Dezel began, opening and closing his mouth a couple of times unable to find the proper words, “It’s been amazing”

“Oh, I’m so glad you have liked it!”, Lailah exclaimed in delight joining her hands together.

“Although my umbrella has fallen a couple of times…”, Edna muttered with a frustrated tone that caused Eizen to ruffle her hair before kissing her in the temple with affection.

“Don’t be silly, you’ve done it great”, he praised, causing his sister to smile.

“And my introduction?!”, Rose exclaimed with an expectant tone, “have I done it right?!”

“Oh, yes, sweetie, it’s been perfect!”, Lailah assured, grabbing both of the redhead’s cheeks between her hands, “you’ve used such a powerful voice that I’m sure Dezel has heard you perfectly”

“Have you?!”, Rose exclaimed looking at Dezel with an embarrassed smile, “sometimes Lafarga says me that I speak very quietly so…”

“Oh, no, no, I’ve heard you very well”, Dezel said immediately, making Rose exhale a happy chuckle.

“Well, Dezel”, Lafarga said then, “Do you know already what do you want to do?”

Dezel nodded vigorously, and then without hesitation he fixed his eyes on Zaveid with admiration.

It was true that he had loved all the performances. Lailah transforming those simple pieces of paper in birds that seemed able to fly for real had been really beautiful, the same way that Eizen’s juggling together with the acrobatic show that he had done in combination with Edna had been incredible as well. Indeed, one of the times that Eizen had thrown Edna in the air so she could make a cartwheel before catching her again just in the last second had made Dezel’s heart skip a beat.

But above all those performances, there was one that had won his heart with clear difference, and that had been Zaveid’s one. The way Zaveid was able to make that pendulum become _alive_ , the way he was able to draw in the air because of the speed he used to throw, move and rotate the pendulum, and the way he was able to do all that while looking completely at ease and having so much fun had impressed him deeply.

Until now Dezel didn’t know what the expression ‘love at the first sight’ meant but after seeing Zaveid’s performance he had finally understood.

“Yes. I want to become a pendulum performer like Zaveid”, he said with such conviction that everyone began to laugh, being Zaveid the louder one.

“Hah, I knew that my show was going to impress him the most!”, he said with an enthusiastic tone approaching Dezel and surrounding with his arm the kid’s shoulders to ruffle with his other hand his hair, causing the kid to chuckle.

“I don’t know why but I knew from the start that he was going to choose you”, Eizen said with a smile.

“Yes, I knew it too”, Lailah agreed, “you seem to be really compatible”

“Well, I’m glad you have no doubts about what you want to do”, Lafarga said with an impressed tone, but then he added with a more serious one, “but Dezel, how old are you?”

“Ten”, Dezel answered, and then his heart sunk when seeing Lafarga put a guilty expression.

“Okay, then I’m afraid that at least a couple of years will have to pass before you can use the pendulums. Managing them is extremely complicated and if you are not old enough you could end hurt by using them”

 “Oh, come on, Lafarga, don’t be like that”, Dezel looked at Zaveid with gratitude when the boy intervened, “it’s not that dangerous, he just has to take care and…”

“Zaveid…”, this time Lafarga’s tone had a hint of warning that made Zaveid shut up immediately, “…you know perfectly how dangerous it can be. You tried to use them when you were too little and almost lost and eye”

“And almost made _everyone_ lose an eye as well”, Eizen completed with a teasing tone that lightened a little the mood, since Lafarga and Zaveid let out respective chuckles when hearing his comment.

“Besides…”, Lafarga continued, “Dezel, do you know how to read? Or how to write?”

Dezel averted his eyes with certain embarrassment and shook his head negatively. He had never had time to learn those kind of things.

“I thought so”, Lafarga said with a tender smile, “okay, then during the first year you’ll be learning that. And then the next year you can begin to learn how to train the animals together with Rose, since she has also have to wait to being with her show”

“Yes, I’m still too little as well to begin with the daggers show”, Rose said with a certain sad tone.

“Don’t worry, Dezel”, Eizen said with a reassuring tone, “training the animals is really funny as well, you’ll see”

Dezel forced himself to smile and nodded, trying to hide his disappointment because he was dying to begin to try the movements that Zaveid had done during his show.

“Well…”, Lafarga said when seeing Rose and Edna hide a yawn, “I think that the younger ones are already rather tired so we should call it a day, but before that I think I should give Dezel his artistic name…Eizen, Zaveid, why are you laughing?”

“Oh, for nothing”, Eizen said, managing to adopt a more or less serious tone while Lailah hit Zaveid’s ribs with her elbow, indicating the boy to try to remain silent.

“Let’s see…”, Lafarga tipped his chin a couple of times before clicking his fingers, “hah! I have it. From now on you’ll be Dezel ‘of the Green Eyes’”

“Okay, it could have been worse”, Eizen admitted in a low tone that just Zaveid and Lailah heard.

“Yeah, it suits you well”, Zaveid commented, placing his hand under Dezel chin to make him raise a little his head towards him, “wow, those eyes of yours are incredibly pretty now that I see them well. You shouldn’t hide them under your bangs or the ladies won’t realize how handsome you are…”

“Zaveid ‘the Ladykiller’, he is only ten, don’t begin to put strange ideas in this innocent kid’s head”, Lailah accused Zaveid enclosing her arms protectively around Dezel, who looked at them alternatively with confusion.

Zaveid snorted.

“Sorry, Lailah, but not all of us are as _pure_ as you…”

This time Zaveid was prepared to avoid Lailah’s hit, causing the woman to exhale a resigned sigh while Zaveid chuckled triumphantly.

“Okay, kids, stop fighting and go to bed already”, Lafarga says clapping his hands twice, but just when Dezel was about to follow the rest Lafarga placed a hand over his shoulder, “wait a moment, Dezel. There are a couple of things that I would like to ask you”

Dezel raised his eyebrows surprised but nodded, taking a sit again on the bench next to Lafarga.

“Dezel”, Lafarga’s tone had become suddenly a little serious, “do you remember when Zaveid had said before that we don’t care about your past?”, when Dezel nodded affirmatively Lafarga continued, “well, that’s completely true. No matter what past you have, now you are a member of our family, and that’s not going to ever change from now on”

Dezel felt a warm feeling invading him, and for the first time in all his life he felt incredibly happy when hearing the word ‘family’.

“However”, Lafarga continued, “even if you don’t want to give much details about your previous life, I would like to know at least if there’s any possibility that someone decides to come here looking for you”, Dezel immediately tensed so Lafarga put a reassuring hand over his shoulder, “of course, if that happens I’ll make sure to immediately ask that person to leave, but I just want to be prepared”

Dezel relaxed again, and after a little pause he shook his head negatively.

“No, I don’t think anyone comes to look for me”, Dezel said, and after hesitating he added, “my dad abandoned me when I was little and my mother is now living with another man, and I think…no, I’m sure that they are better without me”

Lafarga nodded.

“Alright. That’s all I needed to know”

“That’s all?”, Dezel asked honestly surprised.

“Yes, that’s all”, Lafarga said with a smile, and when seeing Dezel’s confused expression he added, “you know, a thing that all the Windriders have in common is that we don’t like to ask people about things that they don’t want to tell. Of course, we will be disposed to listen if those people are willing to share them, but just in that case”

Dezel bit his bottom with hesitation but at the end he dared to ask.

“Is…is everyone past as complicated as mine or I am the only one?”

Lafarga let out a soft sigh before answering.

“No, you aren’t the only one. All the Windriders have a complicated past”

“So then you took them in the same way you’ve done with me?”, Dezel asked, unable to hide his curiosity anymore.

Lafarga nodded before smiling.

“Yes, that’s it. I found Zaveid when he was just five years old. At that moment I was just a traveler who was still wondering what I wanted to do with my life and I found him when he had just been spelled from the orphanage where he was living because, according to the people in charge of the place, he was too violent and rebellious. However, when speaking with Zaveid he told me that in that place the people in charge practically exploited the kids, forcing them to work until they ended exhausted and a lot of days they didn’t even eat. When hearing Zaveid’s story, I immediately reported to the authorities what was happening in the orphanage, and when after a couple of days the place was closed and the people in charge were sent to jail, I decided to keep with my journey. After all the kids were already in good hands, but Zaveid insisted on accompanying me, and when seeing how enthusiastic he was I couldn’t say him no so I took him under my charge and we kept travelling.”

“A couple of years later, during our travel we made a stop at certain village, and when we entered the inn we overheard a conversation between two people that were planning to sell their daughter because they didn’t have enough money to keep her anymore. When hearing that, we first investigated who their daughter was and discovered that her true parents had died in an accident and that the people who was planning to sell her were a couple of ‘friends’ of their deceased parents that were treating her like a servant instead of taking care of her. So, since the girl was living with them but fortunately they weren’t legally her stepparents, we decided to take her with us that same day, and like that Lailah joined us in our travel as well.  Of course, those miserable people never went after her”

“Just some months later we met the Sparrowfeathers, a group of merchants and performers who allowed us to join them. After seeing some of their shows, the idea of becoming a circus came to my mind so I proposed it to the chief of the Sparrowfeathers. Since he liked the idea, he decided to ‘separate’ the group of the Sparrowfeathers in two: the merchants and the performers, and like that the Windriders were born.

“That same year, a kid carrying an extremely skinny two-years-old girl in his arms visited us asking for a job, since their mother had just died and he needed a job to be able to take care of his sister. The chief offered him two options: to form part of the Sparrowfeathers and become a merchant, or to form part of the Windriders and become a circus performer, and that’s when Eizen and Edna decided to join as well.

“Like that, another year passed, and then something completely unexpected happened: the chief caught a cold that developed in a really serious pneumonia and died, leaving his pregnant woman completely lost together with the rest of the merchants, who didn’t know what to do without their chief, and in fact when a couple of months later the chief’s wife finally gave birth she was so weak that she didn’t survive.

“Fortunately her daughter did, and since everyone in the Sparrofeathers had already a family to take care of, we decided to adopt that baby as well. We called her Rose and during the next three years we put on hold our plan to become a circus in order to take care of her. We just worked as Sparrowfeathers helping the merchants. However, after that time we had won enough money to take care of ourselves, so we decided to separate again and recover our Windriders group together with some Sparrowfeathers members who also wanted to become circus performers instead of keeping being merchants.

“And at last, another five years passed and now here we are: finally becoming a circus with the incorporation of a new young member”, Lafarga ended his story with a sad smile, “and you don’t know how I regret not having found you earlier”

Dezel gulped to push back the lump that had settled on his throat when hearing Lafarga say that with a true guilty tone, and since he didn’t trust his own voice he simply shook his head negatively, indicating him that he was okay.

“Well, I suppose that you have heard more than enough because I always tend to speak too much but if you have any questions feel free to ask”

Dezel was about to shake his head but at the end he realized that he had indeed a question.

“Yes, just one. What had happened with the rest of the Sparrowfeathers who joined you?”

“Weeell…”, Lafarga said scratching the back of his head, “the truth is that there is something that we haven’t told you, and it’s that the life of a performer is not always easy. There is never guarantee about how many people are going to see you perform and sometimes depending on the place where you go you are forced to low the normal prices of the actuation if you want someone to go to see you to act. Consequently, the Sparrowfeathers that joined us decided to come back to be merchants at least until we managed to become an official circus, since when doing that our benefits would be more or less stable”

Dezel frowned.

“And you are going to accept them back?”, Dezel’s frown incremented when Lafarga nodded simply, “but that’s unfair! While you’ve been training they have done nothing!”

“Maybe, but those people had kids under their care, so it’s perfectly understandable that they decided to choose a job that assured them the maintenance of their families”, Lafarga said with a soft tone, “besides, when we’ve had in trouble because we hadn’t won as much as we had expected they have always come to help us and have never hesitated to give us everything we needed”

“Oh…”, Dezel’s expression turned guilty for having accused those people without thinking, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know…”

“I know”, Lafarga said with a reassuring smile patting his head a couple of times softly, “I’m glad that you worry about us. That means that you’ve already accepted us as your family”

Dezel’s expression brightened when hearing that, and after hesitating a little he stood up to situate in front of Lafarga and hugged him, surprising the man.

“Thank you for accepting me”, Dezel whispered, afraid that speaking louder could make the trembling on his voice to evident, but even if Lafarga noticed he pretended not to and just returned the hug.

“You’re welcome, Dezel ‘of the Green Eyes’”, he said with a tender tone, and even if his artistic name wasn’t the best of the world Dezel could feel again that warm invading him. Because being called that meant that he was part of the Windriders, and that knowledge was enough to make him feel immensely happy.

“Okay, I’ve bothered you enough”, Lafarga said when they finally separated, “you should go to sleep already. It’s been a long day and you need to rest”

Dezel didn’t deny Lafarga’s words because the truth was that his eyes were beginning to close on its own, so after saying goodbye to Lafarga, who was going to remain awake a little more to revise that everything was correct in the license that the Windriders had just obtained, Dezel went towards the caravan where Zaveid and Eizen were.

He opened the door trying not to make any noise because the lights were already off and the steady breathings of the two boys indicated him that they were already sleeping on their respective futons, so he entered slowly and stood completely still until his eyes got used to the dark to locate his futon, realizing that it was settled just in the middle of Zaveid and Eizen.

Dezel took a deep breath and then he tried to pass over Zaveid without waking him up, but just when he had raised a leg to do so Zaveid mumbled something unintelligible and changed his position, hitting Dezel’s other leg and causing the kid to fall over the until now sleeping boy, making him let out a breathless gasp of surprise.

“S-sorry, sorry!”, Dezel whispered with a worried tone, while the other boy tried to recover his recently taken away breathing, “I-I was trying to reach my futon and then…”

“Sshh”, Zaveid whispered with a smile, settling a hand over Dezel’s mouth and making the kid shut up instantly, “lower your voice or you’ll wake Eizen up, and believe me you _really_ don’t want to do that”

Dezel raised a surprised eyebrow because Eizen seemed to be extremely kind, but when seeing the worried expression that Zaveid showed when Eizen looked about to wake up before turning to his other side to keep sleeping made Dezel not want to risk waking the blond boy.

“How has been your talk with the old man?”, Zaveid asked when Dezel finally lied down on the futon between him and Eizen.

“Fine”, Dezel said simply before continuing with an hesitating tone because he didn’t know how Zaveid was going to react, “he has told me about how you joined the circus”

“Oh, then he will have tell you what an adorable kid I was when I was little, right?”

Dezel chuckled when hearing Zaveid’s joking tone, but then Eizen moved again and the two awaken boys tensed for a moment until realizing that the blond kept sleeping.

“Okay, we better stop talking”, Zaveid said with such a low tone that Dezel was forced to move closer to hear him, “but before that would you like that I show you tomorrow some of my pendulum techniques?”

Dezel’s expression illuminated just before turning sad.

“But Lafarga has said that I’m still too little to use pendulums”

“Yes, he had said that”, Zaveid agreed before smiling mischievously, “buuut he hasn’t said anything about not being able to _see_ me train. Besides, Lafarga is a worrywart: as long as you are fast enough to avoid the pendulum when it’s going to hit you you will be fine, and you are fast if you managed to avoid those wolves in the forest. So…”, Zaveid winked at Dezel conspiratorially , “…maybe tomorrow I will forget one of my pendulums in this same caravan, and since I’m a disaster it won’t be strange if I don’t find it anymore when I come back. Although of course no one must know about it or I’ll be severely punished”

Dezel slowly smiled and nodded, understanding that Zaveid was offering him one of his pendulums as long as he trained with discretion.

“Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone”, Dezel whispered, winking back at Zaveid and causing the older boy to chuckle softly.

“Very well”, Zaveid pinched Dezel’s nose playfully before closing his eyes, “now sleep, Dezel-chan. You’ve had a long day”

Dezel smiled, realizing that Zaveid’s words had been very similar to Lafarga’s ones, and after closing his eyes as well he moved closer to Zaveid, curling against him.

For a moment he was afraid that Zaveid pushed him back, wanting to have his own space, but the boy didn’t do anything like that, and when Dezel felt Zaveid settle a protective arm over him he knew that his nights full of nightmares had gone forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This part of the story about Dezel joining the rest has ended been way longer than I had initially expected so I’ve decided to leave it as an individual chapter. In the next one I’ll be describing different fragments of the rest of the years that will involve Dezel and Zaveid more. After all, they still have to fall in love :D 
> 
> I don’t think that the next update takes me more than two weeks, and as I comented the rate of the chapter will finally change :) Hope you have enjoyed this chapter ^^ Thank you so much for the comments and the kudos, and don’t hesitate to tell me what you think about the story :)


	7. Past Arc - Part 2: Falling in love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry in advance for the monstrous long chapter but I wanted to reach a certain point in the story and this has been the result ^^
> 
> Also, I had quite a trouble when deciding how to indicate the timeline of the story, so to try to make it in the clearest possible way I indicate the years that are passing AND the total time from the present of the story. Also, if someone is having doubts about the ages of the characters I remind that when Dezel joins the Windriders he is 10, meaning that Rose is 8, Edna is 11, Lailah and Zaveid are 16, and Eizen is 18. 
> 
> I hope not having confused you even more ^^U 
> 
> WARNING: as I commented, the rating of the fic has changed and new tags have been added, so check it out before reading if you want to know what is going to happen in this chapter ;) And also sorry because I haven’t had time to re-read the chapter as much as I wanted so probably there will be even more grammar mistakes than usual -.- I’ll correct them the fastest I can, I promise :)

**2 years later (10 years ago the present day)**

 “So…”, Lailah said while using a wet cloth on Dezel’s forehead, where a fresh wound was bleeding slightly, “what you are saying is that you’ve got this wound when training the animals, right?”

“Yep. That’s it”

Lailah raised an eyebrow with a skeptical expression on her face while staring at the other bruises that were adorning Dezel’s cheeks and hands.

“Rose?”, Lailah turned to look at the redhead next to Dezel, “is that true?”

Rose blinked a couple of times but after a brief pause she gave a quick nod.

“Yes, it’s true. As Dezel has said one of the wolves was a little exalted and has hurt him accidentally”

Lailah half-closed her eyes.

“I thought that Dezel had said that it had been a dodo…”

Rose gulped and was about to rectify when Dezel intervened with a confident explanatory tone.

“Yeah, they have been both. A wolf _and_ a dodo”

“Y-yes, that’s it”, Rose said with a nervous smile.

Lailah exhaled a sigh, and after looking alternatively at the two kids she finally shook her head with resignation.

“Be more careful the next time, alright?”, she ended saying while placing a sticking-plaster on Dezel’s forehead, making the two kids exhale respective relieved sighs.

“Okay. Thanks a lot Lailah”, Dezel said with a wide smile before leaving the tent in a hurry, forcing Rose to run after him.

Lailah exhaled another sigh just when Eizen was entering the tent from the back, with an amused smile on his lips.

“Maybe I’m mistaken but I think that those wounds weren’t made by animals…”

Lailah smiled resignedly.

 “Of course they weren’t”, Lailah’s tone turned concerned, “do you think that I should have been harder on them?”

“Nah”, Eizen said shaking his head, “besides, I’m sure that Lafarga knows what Dezel is doing so don’t worry about it”

Lailah nodded, relieved by Eizen’s reassuring words.

“Still, if Dezel ends suffering a serious wound I’m going to have a serious talk with _that_ irresponsible man for being such a bad influence”

Eizen chuckled when hearing Lailah’s threatening tone.

“In that case, I hope that he is prepared to run”, he said with a joking tone, “because no one makes Lailah ‘the Pure’ angry and lives to speak about it”

* * *

“Phew! That was close!”

Rose let out an exaggerated grumpy sigh and situated herself in front of Dezel with her arms crossed in front of her chest.

“It’s the last time that I cover you”, she snapped, causing Dezel to let out a laugh.

“Oh, come on, it’s not been that bad”, Dezel said with a cheery tone, “after all Lailah hasn’t discovered us even if you have said a different animal”

Rose blushed a little when Dezel mentioned her mistake and shook her head.

“Anyway, you should be more careful if you don’t want Lafarga to discover that you are training more than you should with Zaveid’s pendulums”

Dezel snorted.

“Look who is talking”, he said grabbing one Rose’s wrists and rolling up her sleeve to expose several marks, “if you aren’t careful enough when training with daggers you’ll be in trouble too”

Rose clicked her tongue and slapped Dezel’s hand away, rolling down her sleeve again rapidly.

“Besides, at least now we know where she is keeping the medicine”, Dezel added with a happy tone that caused Rose to end smiling as well.

“Yeah, that’s true”, she admitted.

“Tsk, I warn you that the medicine is not going to cure the hits of my umbrella if you end badly hurt for being a couple of bakas”

Dezel and Rose jumped startled when Edna suddenly appeared next to them.

“Bah, you say that but you are the one who helps us when we end hurt”, Dezel replied with a smile, causing Edna to roll her eyes.

“Whatever”, she said with her usual monotone tone before opening her umbrella, “by the way, shouldn’t you be training with the animals right now?”

Dezel grunted with frustration.

“I’m tired of the animals already. I want to be a Wind Seraph like Lafarga and Zaveid”, he protested with a sulking tone.

“And I want to do my daggers show!”, Rose added as well.

Edna sighed and used her umbrella to hit Dezel and Rose’s head with enough force to make the two kids exhale an ‘ouch’.

“Okay, animal-haters, can you repeat aloud what is the motto of the Windriders?”

Dezel and Rose rolled their eyes at the same time before reciting the motto in unison.

“ _We always have to do our best while performing, without caring about being watched by one person or by thousandths”_

“There you have it”, Edna said, “an now let’s go or I’ll tell Lafarga that you have been slacking off”

“Okaay”, Dezel said with a resigned tone before following the blond girl back towards the animal tent. He couldn’t wait to end with that training to come back with Zaveid.

* * *

A couple of hours later Dezel was entering the big top where Zaveid and Lafarga were training. As always, he remained completely quiet while observing with amazed eyes how the two men were able to walk for that extremely high tightrope, and how they were able to keep using their pendulums up there as comfortably as if they were in the ground.

Dezel let out a deep sigh. He knew that he was too impatient for wanting to do that show as well even when he hadn’t been authorized yet to fully train with the pendulums but he couldn’t help it. Even if he didn’t mind to work with animals and even if he had a hand with them, he was a little tired of doing just that.

Okay, it was true that with Zaveid’s help he had been able to train with the pendulums much more than he should, but still he couldn’t wait to be in the stage together with the ‘Wind Seraphs’.

At that moment Lafarga and Zaveid finished the training show and Dezel began to applaud automatically, causing the men to look down at him with wide smiles on their faces.

“Aren’t you tired of seeing us doing the same again and again?”, Zaveid joked when he was finally on the ground, approaching him to ruffle his hair.

“Nope”, Dezel said with a smile, “besides, you are always improvising something new so it’s _never_ the same”

“Yes, and although I’m glad that you have such a talent to improvise I would prefer that you waited to test your inventions until being sure that they aren’t going to make you break your neck”, Lafarga commented with a certain reproachful tone while fixing his eyes on Zaveid.

“Tsk, you’re such a worrywart”, Zaveid commented with a teasing tone while situating his hands behind his head, “how many times I’ve fallen because of my movements?”

Lafarga let out a sigh.

“Never”, he admitted, making Zaveid exhale a triumphant laugh.

“There you have it”, he said with a proud tone.

Lafarga let out another sigh and smiled with resignation before turning to look at Dezel.

“Please, Dezel, try to convince this knucklehead to be careful. Probably he will listen to you more than me”, Lafarga said with such an exaggerated desperate tone that caused Zaveid to laugh before patting his teacher’s shoulder reassuringly.

“Maybe it doesn’t look like it but I’m _always_ careful”, Zaveid commented before winking at Dezel, “after all, if something happened to me who would teach this shrimp how to manipulate a pendulum properly?”

“Hey, don’t call me shrimp!”, Dezel protested with such an offended tone that Zaveid laughed loudly.

“Sorry, kid, but you don’t even reach my shoulder yet so you… are… a… _shrimp_ ”, Zaveid said with a teasing tone while flicking Dezel’s forehead, causing the kid to half-close his eyes at him.

“Lailah always says that I’m going to be taller than you one day, so when that day comes _you_ will be the shrimp”, Dezel threatened.

“Yeah, it may be true, but for now…”, Zaveid said with a casual tone before suddenly grabbing Dezel in the air and turning him upside down, causing the kid to exhale a surprised cry before beginning to laugh, “…you are a shrimp and consequently I can do this to you  and you can’t  do anything to prevent it!”

“Okay, okay!”, Dezel begged between laughs when Zaveid began to swing him, “I give up, I give up!!”

Zaveid swung Dezel a last time before finally placing him on the floor.

“Dezel, you shouldn’t let this bully do whatever he pleases or he will get used to it”, Lafarga said with an amused smile before walking out the tent, leaving the two youngsters alone.

“Hey, do you want me to show you the new moves that I’ve learnt?”, Dezel said with an enthusiastic tone.

“Yeah, of course, but before that…”, Zaveid brushed Dezel’s bangs away from his forehead to expose the wound that Lailah had just treated, “…what is _this_?”

Dezel gulped, because even if Zaveid wasn’t angry his tone had turned more serious.

“Umh…well, I…”

Zaveid placed his hands on his hips.

“You’ve been trying to do the trick that I told you NOT to do yet, right?”

“No”, Dezel lied, but when seeing the way Zaveid half-closed his eyes he immediately rectified, “okay, yeah, I’ve tried it but I just did it a couple of times and I was about to make it and…”

“Dezel…”

Dezel shut up when Zaveid’s tone acquired a hint of warning and averted his eyes, an apologetic expression on his face.

“I’m sorry…”, he muttered, still not looking at Zaveid, who bended down a little to situate his face at Dezel’s level.

“Look, kid”, Dezel looked at Zaveid again and this one was relieved when seeing him smiling again, “I understand your impatience for trying new things every time because I am the same. I always want to test my skills and see how far I can go. But…”, Zaveid placed a hand over Dezel’s shoulder, “we have a deal, remember? I teach you techniques that Lafarga would prefer you not to know yet because they can be a little dangerous _but_ in exchange you promise to follow my indications. And believe me, kid, if I don’t let you do some techniques yet is because they are more than a little dangerous, understood?”

Dezel nodded.

“Okay. I promise that I won’t disobey you anymore”, he said, but then he couldn’t help to add with a proud tone, “but so just you know I was reaaaally close to do that technique”

Zaveid burst out laughing while shaking his head.

“I don’t doubt it, Dezel-chan, after all you have the luck of having me as your teacher”, Zaveid said with an amused tone, “okay then, don’t you want to show me some new moves?”

Dezel smiled widely and nodded effusively, adopting his starting position.

“You’ll see. This time I won’t fail not even once”

Zaveid chuckled and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“Okay, Dezel-chan. Impress me”

* * *

“The next time I won’t fail, you’ll see”

Zaveid chuckled when Dezel muttered that with a sulking tone, because despite his initial confidence Zaveid had managed to find some mistakes in his moves that he hadn’t been able to refute.

“Come on, don’t be that hard on yourself. You are failing less and less”, Zaveid praised, but Dezel kept frowning with frustration, his hands buried in the pockets of his trousers, “look, it took me a couple of months to learn that technique. You have only been practicing a month and you almost have it. You should feel proud”

Dezel looked at Zaveid with a suspicious expression.

“Aren’t you telling me that just to cheer me up?”, he asked with an skeptical tone that caused Zaveid to chuckle again.

“Nope, I am not”, he said, and Dezel’s expression brightened when hearing how sincere Zaveid’s tone sounded, “buut if you want to become an awesome pendulum master like me, the first step is to eat well, so let’s go kid. I’m almost dying from hunger after all that training”

“Well, technically you aren’t a pendulum master yet. Lafarga is”, Dezel replied, causing Zaveid to snort at him.

“Shut up, bigmouth”, he said pinching Dezel’s nose, causing the boy to exhale a soft ‘ouch’.

However, even if Zaveid’s first intention had been to go rapidly with the rest to have lunch, it took them more than expected because Zaveid was stopped several times by people around the camp that approached him to tell him how good it had been the show that he had done the previous night, and although Dezel was slightly annoyed because he was indeed rather hungry and wanted to reach the tent fast, the truth was that he was happy about how many people formed part of the Windriders right then.

Of course, the one in charge of the main shows kept being the original Windriders, but now it was rather spectacular to see more people joining the shows.

For example, now when Lailah realized her fire-origami show there were dancers following the music while she performed. Also, there were more people that had joined Eizen’s juggling and acrobatic performance, although his pair in all the shows kept being Edna, who had become extremely skilled in just a couple of years to the point that older performers asked her for advice, and obviously the animal show was the performance that had the most people, even if Rose and Dezel were the ones who stood out more because even if they were the youngest, they were almost as skilled as the rest.

The only show that hadn’t changed at all was Lafarga and Zaveid’s pendulum show, since no one besides Dezel had enough tenacity to suffer the hard and frustrating training that the show required, and about the tightrope show they were the only ones that did it as well since they were able to combine it with the pendulums show, so the other performers that had initially wanted to become tightrope walkers had ended joining Eizen’s acrobatic show instead, leaving the ‘Wind Seraphs’ alone.

So, in conclusion, it was great to have more people around them, even if at that moment Dezel was really regretting it because he was really hungry and he could already smell the aroma that came from the inside of the dining-room tent.

“Sorry, kid. It’s the problem with being so famous”, Zaveid said with a joking tone after people finally left him alone, but just when Dezel was finally going to open the entrance of the tent a girl that used to accompany Lailah as a dancer in her performance suddenly approached Zaveid and grabbed his arm.

 “Zaveid! Wait~!”, she called with a sweet voice.

Dezel rolled his eyes when seeing Zaveid immediately turn towards the girl to welcome her with a bigger smile than usual. Damn, if that girl wanted an autograph couldn’t she wait? He was really hungry. 

“Hey, Katie”, Zaveid said with a smile, “what’s up? I thought that you were coming back to Marlind today”

“Yes, that’s true, but…”, Dezel was surprised when the girl suddenly enclosed both of her arms around Zaveid’s neck while smiling with an expression that made Dezel remember a wolf about to eat its prey, “…it’s been a while since the last time we ‘ _tested your bed resistance_ ’ as you like to call it, so what do you say about doing it now before I leave? After all I’m not going to come back in quite a time…”

Dezel frowned with confusion, not understanding the girl’s proposition. It was true that it hadn’t been much time since they had changed their futons for real beds but he didn’t think that it was necessary to test them. They were rather comfortable.

However, it seemed that Zaveid agreed with the girl because his smile grew wider. _Way_ wider.

“Well, that is indeed a really nice suggestion”, he said with a lower tone that Dezel had never heard him use, although when Zaveid turned to look at him his tone came back to normal, “kid, can you go ahead without me? Tell the rest that I’ll be here in five…”, Zaveid looked at the girl to see her frowning, “…ten…”, the girl’s frown kept being in place, “…fifteen…”, the girl’s frown disappeared, replaced for a satisfied smile, “…fifteen minutes”, Zaveid finally completed, “I’ll be here in fifteen minutes, tell the rest that, okay”

Dezel’s expression turned confused because it had been Zaveid the one who had commented to be extremely hungry, but since his stomach decided to protest at that moment he decided that he couldn’t care less about the older boy’s weird attitude and nodded, causing the girl to chuckle while muttering an amused ‘how cute’ before disappearing with Zaveid towards the boy’s caravan.

“You’re late”, Edna commented the moment she saw Dezel enter.

“Sorry, it’s been Zaveid’s fault”, he said while taking his usual sit between the two youngest girls. Lailah and Eizen were already sat at the table and they were the only five persons who were eating at that moment, since normally Lafarga and the rest of the people ate a little earlier than them.

“By the way, where is he?”, Lailah asked with confusion, “weren’t you training together just now?”

“Yes, but he has gone to test his bed resistance with a girl, so maybe he arrives a little late”, Dezel replied simply, and he jolted with surprise when Eizen spat part of his drink and began to cough while Lailah’s eyes opened at its maximum.

“He is doing _what_?!”, Lailah practically shouted with such an angry tone that Dezel and Rose jumped in their sits. The only one who looked completely unaffected was Edna, who was busy patting his brother back while this one kept coughing.

“Lailah, calm down”, Eizen said with a conciliatory tone once he managed to regain his voice, “we all know that Zaveid is in _that phase_ right now”

“Come on, I could understand it if he was still a teenager but he is _eighteen_ already. I think it’s time for him to mature already”, Lailah replied, causing Eizen to chuckle when seeing the girl so altered.

“Let him be”, he said with his characteristic calm tone, “he’ll eventually find someone that will make him settled down”

“Umh…”, Rose intervened then, a curious expression on her face, “what do you mean when saying that Zaveid is in _that phase_ ”

Dezel looked at Lailah and Eizen with curiosity as well to see them interchange a look, as if they didn’t know how to answer Rose’s question, but before neither of them could speak Edna was faster.

“They mean that he likes to go after the girls to…”

 “…t-to play with them”, Lailah completed, and this time when Eizen coughed again Dezel was pretty sure that he had just hide a laugh.

“To play with them?”, Rose repeated, “well, but that’s not bad. You always say that it’s good to make new friends so…”

“Y-yeah, and that’s true”, Lailah said with a nervous smile, “but this is not exactly…what I mean is…oh please, Eizen, can you stop laughing and help me with this?!”

“Sorry, Lailah, but I think that maybe it’s already time to explain these kids some things”, Eizen said, causing Lailah’s eyes to open even more if possible.

“B-but Rose is still ten! I mean, it’s true that Dezel is big enough already because he is twelve but…”

“Hey, what if I am ten?”, Rose protested, crossing her arms in front of her chest, “if Dezel can know whatever it is what you have to explain and Edna already knows it, I want to know it too!”

Lailah exhaled a defeated sigh and looked at Eizen again, who smiled with amusement while extracting a coin from his pocket.

“Heads or tails?”, he simply asked, causing Lailah to sigh again.

“Heads”

Eizen tossed up the coin, made it rotate in the air and grabbed it again, and Lailah seemed to like the result because she clapped her hands and smiled with relief while Eizen took a deep breath.

“Okay…”, he said with a calm voice, “where do I start…?”

* * *

Ten minutes later Dezel and Rose were looking at Eizen with their mouths and eyes competing for which of them was the most opened.

“…and that’s the basic that you should know for now”, Eizen completed, “any questions?”

There was a rather long silence and then, suddenly, Rose and Dezel let out at the same time such a loud and honest ‘ _Yuuuuck_!’ that Eizen and Lailah couldn’t help to begin to laugh.

“Is that true?”, Rose asked, her face showing such a funny grimace that he older ones’ attempts to adopt a more serious expression failed miserably, “yuck, how gross! I’m never never _never_ going to have kids”

“So Zaveid now…with that girl…he is…”, Dezel didn’t end the sentence, he just wrinkled his nose while his body suffered a rather powerful shiver.

“And do you really want me to believe that doing _that_ feels good?”, Rose exclaimed with a high-pitched voice.

“But I don’t understand, how is going to feel good to put _that_ inside _there?_ It’s just… _yuck_!”, Dezel suffered another shiver while Rose nodded effusively.

“Way to go, brother, you’ve just traumatized them”, Edna commented with an imperturbable tone, and this time it was Eizen’s time to ‘glare’ at Lailah when this one smiled at him charmingly as if she was saying: ‘ _You’ve wanted to do this, it’s your turn to fix things now_ ’

“Look”, Eizen adopted a reassuring tone, “right now it’s normal that you think that it’s gross because you’re still too young but in a few years you’ll probably begin to think differently, and for that reason it’s good that you begin to know these things”

“I don’t think that I’ll ever stop thinking this way”, Rose snapped with a determined tone that caused Eizen to chuckle.

“Zaveid, Lailah and I had the same reaction when Lafarga gave us our first sex talk”, Eizen said with a nostalgic smile, “but believe me, from now on your body is going to begin to experiment changes, and as a consequence of those changes your way of thinking will change as well”

“Then when will we stop thinking that…umh…sex is gross?”, Dezel asked with curiosity.

“It’s different for every person”, Lailah intervened then, before adding with a certain reproachful tone, “for example, until turning fifteen Zaveid wasn’t interested in the theme at all and now he is _too_ interested”

“Oh, so that’s what you meant when saying that Zaveid is in ‘that phase’”, Rose said with an understanding tone.

“Yes, the truth is that what he is doing isn’t the best example to follow but it’s not bad either. I mean…”,  Eizen rectified when Lailah stared at him, “of course the best thing would be just to have sex with a person who you truly love and not doing it with anyone, but every person is free to do whatever he wants to do”

“So, in conclusion, don’t follow Zaveid’s example”, Lailah finished with such a cutting tone that Eizen chuckled, “and if you have any doubt about this don’t hesitate in asking us”

Rose and Dezel interchanged a skeptical look, still not convinced about the good part of having sex.

At that moment the entrance of the tent opened and a rather breathless (but satisfied) Zaveid entered.

“Sorry for the delay. I hope there’s still food for me”, Zaveid asked with a cheery tone, taking a sit next to Lailah while showing a confused expression when seeing the intense stares that Dezel and Rose had fixed on him, “umh…kids, is everything okay…?”

“Do you love the girl who had spoken to you before?”, Dezel asked suddenly, causing Zaveid’s eyes almost pop out of his head.

“What?!”, he exclaimed, completely taken by surprise, “n-no, she is just a friend, but why…?”

“Then why are you having sex with her?”, Dezel asked again.

“Yes, Lailah says that doing that isn’t right. You should do it with the person you truly love”, Rose completed.

Zaveid blinked a couple of times completely astonished before turning to look at Eizen and Lailah.

“Can someone explain me what the hell has happened in the fifteen minutes that I’ve been absent?”

“Eizen had just given them ‘the Talk’”, Edna clarified with a calm tone while beginning with her second plate.

“Yes, so we know that you’re in ‘the phase’ of practicing too much sex”, Rose added with a funny pompous tone, as if she was proud of knowing things that supposedly a ten years old girl shouldn’t know yet.

“What the…?”, Zaveid burst out laughing, “guys, seriously, what the hell have you been telling them? Now they think that I’m some kind of sex addict…”

“…thing that it’s completely correct”, Lailah snapped back.

“Oh, come, this week I’ve just fuc…”, when seeing the menacing stare that Lailah threw at him Zaveid immediately rectified, “ _been_ with two ladies, that’s something rather normal. And speaking about that umh…Eizen…”, the blond young man looked at Zaveid with a questioning look when seeing the apologetic expression that his friend was showing, “umh…you are going to have to change the sheets of your bed”, when seeing the way Eizen half-closed his eyes Zaveid began to babble, “s-sorry, but my bed was full of my stuff and we were in a rush because she had to leave soon so…”

“Lailah, kids”, Eizen said with excessive calm while standing up, “please, don’t wait for us”

Zaveid began to beg his friend for mercy but Eizen just approached him to grab him by one of his ears, forcing him to stand up again.

“Where are you going?”, Rose asked with curiosity.

“I’m going to have a conversation with this idiot right here”, Eizen said with a smile that clearly contrasted with the way he was grabbing Zaveid by his ear with a deathly grip, “don’t worry about it”

“Okay, see you later”, Edna said back while beginning with the desert, and not even ten seconds had passed until they heard Zaveid shout from pain, thing that caused Dezel and Rose look at Lailah with a questioning (but not worried) expression.

“He deserves it”, Lailah smiled almost happily before adding with her usual cheery tone, “come on. Let’s eat already”

Dezel exhaled a sigh before doing what Lailah had suggested. Definitely adults were the weirdest people of the universe.

* * *

**2 years later (8 years ago the present day)**

 “Ooooh, I love them!!!”, Rose exclaimed while taking with reverence the daggers that she had just received as a birthday present.

“Yeah, that’s the present that all the girls dreams to have”, Zaveid commented with a joking tone.

“Be careful with them, they are really sharp”, Eizen warned.

“Do you like them, Rose?”, Lafarga asked with a smile, although the answer was rather pointless because the bright expression that Rose had on her face was enough answer.

“A lot. They are so cool, thank you!!”, she smiled with enthusiasm, “I can use them in my trainings, right?!”

“Yes, you can”, Lafarga agreed, “although for now we’ll put some protection in the tip of the daggers until you get used to use them so you don’t hurt yourself”

“Alright, and now that we are speaking about shows this is for you”

Dezel, who had remained silent with a smile on his lips while seeing Rose hypnotized with her present, raised his eyebrows with surprise when Lailah suddenly offered _him_ a little box. After all they were celebrating Rose’s birthday, not his, so supposedly all the presents should be for her.

“But why? My birthday has already passed”

“It doesn’t matter”, Rose said before adding with a happy tone, “come on, open it, you are going to like it”

 “But I don’t understand why…”

“Aaargh, for goodness sake!”, Edna grabbed with impatience the box that Lailah was still sustaining in front of Dezel and almost buried it into the teenager boy’s ribs, causing him to huff, “shut up and open it already!”

When hearing Edna’s exasperated tone he immediately opened the box, since Edna losing her usual calm like that could only mean that whatever it was inside that box was really important, and he wasn’t mistaken, because when seeing the box’s content his eyes and mouth opened wide in disbelief, causing everyone to begin to laugh.

“I think he has liked the present as well”, Eizen commented with an amused smile while the boy extracted with extreme care a couple of completely new and shining pendulums.

“Sorry, we would have liked to give them to you in your birthday a couple of weeks ago but they weren’t finished yet”, Lafarga explained.

“You better like them, Dezel-chan. I was the one who thought the design”, Zaveid said then with a satisfied tone.

“But…”, Dezel began, finally stopping staring at his completely unexpected present to look at the rest, “…but I thought that I had to wait until being fifteen to use two pendulums…”

“Yes, that was the initial idea”, Lafarga admitted, before adding with an extremely proud tone that made Dezel gulp, “but you’ve completely surpassed my expectations (which I have to say were already extremely high) and I think that you are more than prepared to use them already”

“Congratulations, Dezel, Rose”, Lailah said, her eyes shining so much that she looked about to cry at any moment, “we all are so proud of you two”

Rose and Dezel interchanged a happy look before turning to fix their eyes on Lafarga with nervousness barely suppressed.

“Then does this mean that we can finally stop doing the animals show?”, Dezel asked with such a hoping tone that Lafarga began to laugh.

“Yes, you can”, he said with an amused tone before adding with an apologetic one, “sorry for having made you wait. I would have liked to have let you do the show that you most loved since the beginning but the wait had been necessary if I wanted to assure that you were prepared enough. However, the wait has finally finished, so from now on Rose will be the first and only dagger performer of the Windriders and Dezel will become the third Wind Serpah”

“Three cheers for Rose ‘the Rose’ and Dezel ‘of the Green Eyes’!”, Zaveid exclaimed with a loud tone raising his glass, and while everyone joined Zaveid in his loud cries Dezel had to bite his bottom lip to prevent its trembling because it had been a while since the last time he had felt so damn happy.

After spending some more moments of enthusiastic talk, everyone decided to come back to their respective caravans because it was rather late. However, since Dezel was dying to test his new pendulums he and Zaveid went towards the big top instead to practice a little, so by when they finally decided to call it a day another hour had passed.

“Well, shrimp, you should feel proud”, Zaveid said enclosing an arm around Dezel’s shoulder while this one rolled up with extreme care his new pendulum, “now you’re a step closer to become an awesome pendulum performer like me”

“Oi, I’m almost as tall as you right now so you can’t call me ‘shrimp’ anymore”, Dezel snapped, but there was a happy smile on his face.

“Yeah, well, but you aren’t taller than me yet”, Zaveid replied with a teasing tone, “so I can keep calling you whatever I want, _shrimp_ ”

“Tsk, I’m not going to take seriously the words that come out from the mouth of an exhibitionist like you”

“Hey, I’m not an exhibitionist”, Zaveid protested, “I’ve just recently discovered that performing without upper clothes is way more efficient. Like this I don’t need to care about the pendulum hooking up in my clothes”

Dezel was about to say that that was the worst excuse that he had heard in time but at that moment Zaveid yawned and settled his hands behind his head, the action making his exposed pectorals to tense up a little, and Dezel found himself admitting that he couldn’t blame the girls that found the idiot attractive.

“Okay, Dezel-chan, get going”, Zaveid stopped when they still were midway towards their caravan, “my stop is right here”

"Here?”, Dezel asked momentarily confused, but then he realized that Zaveid was looking towards the tents where the dancers slept, “ _oh_ …”, Dezel snorted, “let me guess: another of your conquests?”

Zaveid laughed when hearing Dezel’s tone.

“More or less”, he said, “do you remember Katie? A girl that used to be a dancer in Lailah’s show but that came back to Marlind?  Nah, you won’t probably remember, it was two years ago or so…”

Dezel snorted again.

“I remember her. The day that girl left was the day when Eizen gave Rose and me ‘the Talk’”

Zaveid burst out laughing.

“It’s true. Times sure passes quickly”, he said with a nostalgic tone, before adding with a teasing one, “and tell me, Dezel-chan, you still keep thinking that sex is something gross or are you beginning to feel curiosity? Because it was when I was around your age that I began to feel rather curious”

“Yeah, I know that, you don’t have the alias Zaveid ‘the Ladykiller’ since you were fifteen for no reason”

Zaveid laughed again.

“Yep, what a great alias Lafarga gave me”, he said with a too proud tone before enclosing an arm around Dezel’s shoulders again, “but don’t try to change the subject, Dezel-chan, and tell me: isn’t there anyone out there who had caught your eye? Or who you liked?”

Dezel shrugged.

“No specially”, Zaveid raised a skeptical eyebrow that caused Dezel to exhale a resigned sigh, “okay, it’s true that I have seen a couple of girls around the camp that are rather pretty and they seem to be nice, but I’m not interested in going out with any of them. Besides, being with someone seems to be incredibly troublesome”

Zaveid began to laugh with amusement.

“That’s because you haven’t found the right person yet”, Zaveid said with a smile, “but believe me, Dezel-chan, at some point you’ll find that person. And then you’ll stop thinking that being with someone is ‘incredibly troublesome’”

Dezel chuckled.

“I don’t think that you are the most indicated to say that since you never go out with the same girl twice”

“Well, that’s not true anymore”, Zaveid replied with a smile, “after all right now I’m going to see Katie _and_ she is a girl who I’ve dated before”

Dezel’s teasing smile gradually disappeared.

“Wait...”, Dezel found himself frowning, “does that mean that you want to go out with that girl?”

Dezel didn’t know why seeing Zaveid hesitating bothered him, but the fact is that it did.

“I don’t know”, Zaveid said with an uncharacteristic serious tone, “I mean, until now all the girls with whom I’ve been were just like me. They just wanted to spend a good time and that was all, but it’s been the first time that a girl has asked me out for real so I don’t know, maybe I give it a try”

Dezel didn’t know how to reply to that comment, and the fact that a completely weird uneasy sensation had invaded him wasn’t helping to push away the awkwardness that he was suddenly feeling right then when speaking with Zaveid.

“Okay, I’ll be going”, he ended saying with a tone that sounded forced to his own ears, “rest well”

“Oh, yeah, you too, Dezel-chan”, Zaveid said, a little surprised for such an abrupt goodbye, “be careful not to wake up Eizen”

Dezel forced himself to smile at Zaveid when hearing that last comment before finally walking towards his caravan with a faster pace than normal.

He opened the door of the caravan ready to find it completely dark but to his surprise Eizen was still awake on his bed, reading a book, and for once Dezel regretted that the older boy wasn’t sleeping yet.

“Hey, how has the training gone? Are your new pendulums alright?”, Eizen asked with a smile.

“Oh, yeah, they are really comfortable to manipulate”, Dezel asked, making an effort to sound animated, and since he knew how intuitive Eizen was (he was probably even more intuitive than Lailah) he removed his clothes, put his pajama on and entered his bed hurriedly with the intention of pretending to fall asleep immediately.

However, as he was fearing, Eizen asked the evident question.

“By the way, where is that idiot?”

At any other moment Dezel would have laughed when hearing Eizen speak like that about Zaveid, but he was so busy trying to pretend that everything was normal that he didn’t, and of course that made Eizen look at him with certain curiosity.

“He is going to spend the night with Katie”, he answered, trying to adopt a neutral tone that came so monotone that he sounded like Edna.

“Katie?”, Eizen frowned with confusion for a just a tiny moment before his face illuminated, “oh, I remember her. I didn’t know that she had come back”

“Me neither”, Dezel said, and certainly he couldn’t blame Eizen when this one raised his eyebrows surprised because his tone had been rather brusque.

“Umh…”, Eizen began with a cautious tone, “Dezel, is there something wrong”

Dezel gulped, and although his first impulse was to lie but he decided that it was going to be useless to try to fool Eizen. Besides, it had been his fault that Eizen asked for not being able to hide his thoughts well and he would be an idiot if now he left Eizen worried.

“Zaveid has said that he wants to try to go out with her”, he ended saying.

Eizen didn’t say anything, waiting for Dezel to continue, but when seeing that the boy didn’t plan to keep speaking he asked again.

“And that’s bad because…?”

Dezel snorted and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Because that’s not like Zaveid at all”, Dezel snapped, and the frustration surprised even him, “I mean, what if he begins to get out with that girl and…”, Dezel gulped, “…and he stops liking to do the pendulums show and…”, _and decides that he doesn’t want to train me anymore_ , he thought, but he didn’t say it aloud because somehow he felt that admitting that was going to imply something definitely weird.

Eizen’s initial confused face slowly turned into a knowing one, and although his lips briefly curved up in an amused smile Dezel was too busy averting his eyes with embarrassment and didn’t notice.

“Dezel, you don’t have to worry about that”, Eizen said with a reassuring tone, “even if Zaveid ends going out with that girl, he isn’t going to push you aside”

Dezel couldn’t help to blush for being read so easily.

“And why are you so sure of that?”, Dezel insisted.

“For two simple reasons”, Eizen said with a smile, “first, because Zaveid loves this circus and his show more than anything else, and consequently it’s completely impossible that he replaces it for anything or anyone. And second…”, Eizen pointed at Dezel with his index finger, “because he promised _you_ that he would train you. And he _never_ breaks a promise”

Dezel let out a deep breath before nodding with confidence.

“You’re right”, he said with such relief that Eizen chuckled.

“Don’t worry, Dezel”, Eizen added with a wink, “Zaveid is never going to leave you behind. He loves you too much for that”

Dezel didn’t know why hearing that last sentence made his heart skip a beat. Okay, definitely he was rather tired and that seemed to be causing weird reactions on him, so he better go to sleep.

“And now rest, Dezel”, Eizen said, as if he was guessing what Dezel wanted to do right then, “because tomorrow you’ll have your first show as a ‘Wind Seraph’”

Dezel smiled widely. Damn, how could he have been about to forget that?

“Yeah, you’re right”, he said, finally entering his bed, and although he was about to turn his back to Eizen to sleep he first looked at the blond boy, “umh…thanks, Eizen”

Eizen smiled softly and winked at him again.

“You’re welcome, Dezel. I’m here whenever you need to talk”

Dezel smiled back and finally closed his eyes. He had been an idiot for feeling so uneasy when thinking about Zaveid being with that girl. After all, Lafarga, Zaveid and now him were the ‘Wind Seraphs’, and never was going to change that.

And surely the next day when he woke up,  that strange feeling that had invaded him when thinking about Zaveid being serious with that girl would have completely evaporated. After all he had been feeling that way because he had been afraid of Zaveid stopping wanting to train him but that wasn’t going to happen because, as Eizen had said, Zaveid’s number one rule was never to break a promise, so what if Zaveid was with someone else? As long as his relation with Zaveid didn’t change that was enough. He didn’t need Zaveid’s full attention.

Yes. Surely the next day everything would be back to normal.

* * *

When Dezel woke up the first thing that came to his mind was: _tonight I’m going to do my first show as a ‘Wind Seraph’_ , and consequently when he left the caravan to join the rest in the breakfast there was a goofy happy smile showing in his face.

“Oh, it seems that someone is in a good mood today”, Eizen said with a smile. Surprisingly, Dezel had been the first one in arriving.

“Oi, can I repeat today?”, Dezel asked with an enthusiastic tone while Eizen began to serve his plate, “I’m going to be training all day so I’m going to need extra energy”

Eizen laughed and nodded.

“Of course, new Wind Seraph, eat all you want”, he said while placing a plate in front of Dezel just when Lailah, Edna and Rose were entering the tent.

“I want to repeat too!”, Rose said quickly taking her place next to Dezel, “I’m going to be training too”

“Lailah? Edna? What about you?”, Eizen.

“I’ll have the same as always”, Lailah said with a chuckle, “I’m not that young anymore to allow myself to eat too much”

“I’m fine this way”, Edna agreed as well, although despite her words his brother put her a little more food than usual.

“Weeeell, then if everybody is eating more than usual I’m not going to be less”

Dezel chuckled and raised his head from his plate when hearing Zaveid saying that but his smile froze when seeing that he hadn’t entered the tent alone.

“Oh, Katie, are you going to join us as well?”, Lailah asked with a surprised smile when seeing the girl.

“Yes, if you don’t mind of course”, the unexpected newcomer said with a sincere amicably tone, and even if the girl looked incredibly nice Dezel had to suppress a frown when seeing the way she was grabbing Zaveid’s arm.

“Of course they don’t mind”, Zaveid said with a reassuring tone, kissing her briefly and causing Rose to exhale a surprised gasp and Dezel to grab his fork with more force, the same uneasiness that he had felt the previous day coming back at full force.

Dezel suppressed a gulp. Okay. There was no need at all to feel like that. Thanks to his talk with Eizen the night before he had confirmed that the fact that Zaveid was with someone didn’t mean that he was going to stop training with him or anything like that, so there was absolutely no reason to feel such animadversion towards the girl. No reason at all.

“Dezel-chan, are you alright?”, Dezel almost jumped in his site when Zaveid suddenly spoke to him with an amusing tone, “you’ve been staring at your food for almost a minute without eating, don’t tell me that Eizen had managed to make the first bad breakfast of all his life”

Dezel gulped, missing the way Eizen and Lailah interchanged a glance when answering.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine”, he simply said, forcing himself to keep eating even if his initial appetite had reduced considerably.

“Dezel?”, the teenager tensed up when Katie suddenly opened her eyes wide before exclaiming, “oh, you’re the cute boy that were with Zav two years ago when I left!”, _Zav?_ , Dezel thought to himself, “oh my, you’ve grown up quite a lot”

“Yeah, he has. And tonight it’s his first time joining Lafarga and me in our performance”, Zaveid said with a happy smile that made Dezel’s discomfort subside a little.

“Oh, that’s great! Zaveid has told me how much you both have trained to achieve that. Although…”, the girl looked at Zaveid and batted her eyes exaggeratedly at him, “…although I hope that you have a little of time to spare with me as well, Mister Winder Seraph”

Even if it was evident that the girl was doing it with irony, a part of Dezel was expecting that Zaveid commented something about the training keep being in the first place, but he simply laughed and kissed Katie again this time on the forehead.

“Don’t worry. I’ll manage to have time for you too”, he said with his usual nonchalant tone, and when seeing the way Katie chuckled with amusement before being about to kiss him again, Dezel found himself unable to be in that place one second longer.

“Okay, I think that I’m full already, so I’m going to train”, he said, and he was proud of himself when managing to use an almost normal tone.

“Don’t you want to eat more?”, Rose asked with confusion, “but you’ve just eaten half of your plate”

Even if Rose hadn’t done it on purpose at that moment Dezel couldn’t help to want to kill her a little, but fortunately Eizen intervened.

“That was his second plate”, the blond boy lied with a completely natural tone, surprising Dezel, “so it’s normal that he is rather full already”

“Yes, I got up a little too early”, Dezel lied as well while stepping outside the table, “I’ll be in the big top”

“Gotcha”, Zaveid winked at him and palmed his arm playfully when Dezel passed next to him,  “I’ll join you in a couple of hours or so”

Dezel simply nodded and left the tent, not trusting his own voice when answering Zaveid.

However, instead of going towards the big top as he had said he came back to his caravan, and after putting the bolt on the door he leant all his weight against it and settled a hand over his own chest, feeling his heart beating way too hastily.

Damn it. What the hell was happening to him? What had happened back at the tent? Why did he feel that bad every time that Katie touched Zaveid like that? Damn, if it wasn’t because it hadn’t any sense at all it looked as if he was jealous, but jealous of what?

Zaveid himself had said that he was going to train with him like always, his attitude hadn’t changed towards him one bit so why was he acting so strangely…?

At that moment someone knocked at the door, making Dezel exhale a surprised shout that caused him to cover his own mouth with a mortified expression. Damn, if it was Zaveid right then…

“Dezel?”

Dezel exhaled a relieved sigh when hearing Edna’s voice, and after gulping and clearing his throat he opened the door, trying to adopt a normal expression that he knew came out a little strained.

“H-hey, Edna, what’s up? I-I’ve just come back for my pendulums before…”, damn, what the hell was he doing giving explanations when the girl hadn’t asked him anything?

“I’m going to check the animals, can you help me before you begin to train?”, she asked simply, her expression as imperturbable as always.

Dezel raised his eyebrows surprised, not expecting that sudden petition, but since it was extremely rare that Edna asked him help for anything that meant that she _really_ needed help.

So he agreed, and during the next hour he helped Edna and the rest of the animal caretakers to check that all the animals were well to perform during that night show, and although the day before that task would have bored him, right then the fact of caressing the animal’s back to put them at ease while the caretakers examined them carefully was helping him to relax again.

“You seem to be better now”, Edna commented suddenly when they were sat outside the tent to take a rest, “during the breakfast you seemed about to explode”

Dezel opened his eyes at his maximum since he wasn’t expecting that comment.

“Wait, for that reason you’ve asked me help?”, he asked with surprise.

“I’ve thought that doing this kind of thing would help you to calm down”, she simply said, causing Dezel to exhale a laugh.

“Well, you were right”, he ended saying before adding, “thanks”

Edna shrugged, but there was a tiny smile on her face.

“Oi, Edna…”, Dezel hesitated but at the end he decided to ask, “what do you think about Katie?”

Edna shrugged again.

“She seems like a nice girl”, she commented simply, “Lailah thinks that she and Zaveid make an interesting couple”, Edna looked at Dezel with curiosity, “why do you ask?”

“O-oh, just out of curiosity”

Dezel insulted himself internally because he had spoken a little too nervously, causing Edna to half-close her eyes at him, as if she was deciding if asking or not.

“Dezel!”

At that moment Lafarga, who until then had been busy making sure that nothing was missing for the show of the night, began to approach them with fast steps, and although at first Dezel thanked internally the man for interrupting Edna and him, when seeing how serious Lafarga was his initial relief turned into worry.

“What’s wrong?”, Dezel asked, and when Lafarga settled a hand over his shoulder his nervousness grew even more.

“A man has just arrived to the camp wanting to see you. He claims to be your stepfather”

Dezel’s heart practically stopped for a moment while a cold sweat invaded his body. Definitely, it wasn’t being his best day.

“I’m sorry to bring such disagreeable news”, Lafarga said with a sad tone, “but I didn’t want to kick him out without asking you before”

Dezel gulped before taking a deep breath.

“He…”, he cleared his throat and tried again, “he looked at least sober?”

Lafarga nodded and Dezel averted his eyes, lost in his thoughts. Meanwhile Edna had approached Lafarga and was looking at him with her usual calm expression, but the way her knuckles were completely white while grabbing her umbrella betrayed her apparent calm.

“I’ll go to speak with him”, Dezel decided after some moments, because he knew that if he didn’t do it, later he would be wondering what that miserable wanted and he definitely didn’t want to lose his time like that.

Lafarga nodded again and began to walk, leading the way. Edna remained next to Dezel, and he was surprised when suddenly she grabbed her arm without saying anything, as if she was offering him a silent support, and in fact she didn’t release him until they were almost at the entrance of the camp, where a rather big crowd had settled around the man who was standing just at the entrance and that caused Dezel to gulp again, remembering what had happened the last time that he had seen him.

However, even if his first reaction was to tell Lafarga that he had thought it better and that he didn’t want to speak with that man, at that moment he pinpointed the rest of the Windriders just in the front line:

Lailah was looking at the man with such a look that if glares killed, that man would be long dead.

Rose was sustaining her recently acquired daggers with such force that she looked about to throw them at any moment.

Eizen had grabbed his shaft as well and was swinging it back and forth with apparent absent-mind movements that contrasted with his expression, which was showing an angry grimace that didn’t suit his soft features at all.

But the one who surprised Dezel the most was Zaveid, because even if at first glance his expression looked calm, his orange eyes were shining with an extremely dangerous aura. Also, his muscular arms were crossed in front of his chest in a tight grip, and all his body was in tension, as if he was prepared to jump over the man at any moment, and it seemed that the man had noticed that because he looked extremely uncomfortable, so as a result Dezel felt just the contrary, all his initial fear disappearing when beginning to walk towards the man.

“Dezel…”, Lafarga said, stopping his advances, “if at any moment you want us to intervene, please, just say it”

Dezel smiled and nodded before finally approaching his stepfather, and feeling all his friends fixed his eyes on him when he passed next to them gave him even more strength if possible.

“Oh, you’ve grown up a lot”, the man said when Dezel was just in front of him, and he used such a false caring voice that Dezel felt sick,  “how tall are you now? 1,76? 1,79?”

“What do you want?”, Dezel snapped, effectively interrupting the man’s babbling , although he managed to keep his disagreeable smile in place.

“Well, the thing is that your mother heard that you had become quite an important circus performer and she has asked me to check if you were alright”

Dezel felt unable to speak for a moment when hearing that obvious lame lie.

“Oh, is that so?”, he said with a sarcastic tone, “then tell me, do any of you even know how old I am now? Or what I am doing in this circus?”

The man licked his lips while sweat formed in his forehead.

“Umh…well, you are…thirteen? And you are a…circus performer as I’ve said and…”

Dezel let out a snort.

“Please, stop with the farce”, he said with a firm cold tone that surprised even him, “it’s evident that you’ve come here just to ask me for money because probably you’re ruined again. If you had wanted to know how I was as you’ve said, you’ve had a lot of opportunities to do it. After all, how many Dezel ‘of the Green Eyes’ do you think there are around here?”

The man gulped and opened his mouth to speak but Dezel was faster.

“So when you come back, please, tell my mother that I am _fourteen_ and that I form part of the Wind Seraphs. Like that if you want to try and ask me for money again in a couple of years, at least you’ll have the correct information”

When hearing that, the man finally showed his true colors.

“You…that’s how do you treat your family?!”, the man shouted, spitting while talking, “The people who raised you for ten years?! If it hadn’t been for me, you and your mother would have died from hunger and…”

The man shut up when Dezel approached him and grabbed him by the front of his dirty jacket, and since now Dezel was taller than him the man was forced to throw his head back to look at him.

“First, you aren’t my family. _They_ …”, Dezel made a wide gesture with one of his arms, signaling the circus behind him, “are my family. People who really care about me and who love me without asking anything in return. You and my mother don’t deserve to be called that, since you couldn’t have cared less about me during all these four years, so don’t you dare to come back here ever again claiming that”

Dezel released the man with disdain and came back with the rest, who were looking at him with pride and affection while his stepfather was still opening and closing his mouth, trying to find anything to say.

“Well said”, Edna said with an unusual touched tone while Rose practically jumped over Dezel to hug him with force, making him almost fall.

“Are you okay?”, Lailah asked, and when hearing the slight concern of his tone Dezel immediately nodded.

“Yes. I’m fine”

“Zaveid, you can relax now”, Eizen commented then, making Dezel finally notice that Zaveid was still looking at that man, his body still in tension.

“You know, Dezel-chan, lately I’ve been thinking in a show of hitting targets with my pendulums, would you like me to test it with that asshole?”

Dezel couldn’t help to laugh when hearing Zaveid say that with a completely serious tone.

“Nah, I don’t what you to misuse your precious pendulums like that”, Dezel said with a playful tone that put a smile on Zaveid’s face.

“Alright, sir”, Lafarga approached Dezel’s stepfather, who hadn’t moved since Dezel released him, “now that you’ve already talked with your ‘son’ could you please leave and never come back?”

The man clicked his tongue and fixed his coat, finally turning around to leave.

“I knew that I should have punished that kid more when I had the chanc…”

What happened next was so fast that Dezel hadn’t time to see it.

He only knew that after his stepfather said that sentence, Zaveid had literally disappeared from his view and the next time Dezel located him, he had thrown his stepfather against the ground and was hovering over him, one hand grabbing the man’s neck and the other sustaining one of his pendulums extremely close to one of the man’s eyes.

“Repeat that”, Dezel gulped when hearing Zaveid use a low threatening tone, a dangerous expression adorning his normally amicable face.

The man babbled something unintelligible and Zaveid seemed to increase the grip on his neck because the man began to open and close his mouth desperately, as if he was gasping for air.

“Zaveid”, Lafarga approached the younger pendulum performer and settled a hand on his shoulder, speaking with calm, “Zaveid, release him”

Zaveid didn’t obey at first. In fact he seemed to do just the contrary because the man began to kick desperately while settling his hands over Zaveid’s unforgivable wrist, trying to force him to reduce the deathly grip without success.

“Zaveid”, now it was Eizen the one who approached Zaveid, “Zaveid, please, stop. You don’t need to do this. Dezel is fine now.”

When hearing the kid’s name, Zaveid seemed to finally react and raised his head, his eyes fixing directly on Dezel, who found himself unable to avert his from Zaveid’s orange ones.

“Okay”, Zaveid ended muttering, releasing the man who began to cough, gasping for air, “but listen well, you piece of shit”, Zaveid grabbed the man by the hair and forced him to look at Dezel, “that kid is with us now, and he is NEVER going to come back with you AGAIN, so get the fuck out of here before I decide to test how sharpened this pendulum is”

Zaveid ended the sentence snapping the man’s face against the ground with such force that the man fell immediately unconscious, causing Lafarga to ask a couple of people for help to drag the man out of the camp.

“I’ll leave him in the nearest village”, Lafarga announced the rest, “please, everyone, come back to your respective jobs”

When hearing Lafarga’s words the crowd finally began to dissolve but Dezel barely noticed it because at that moment, while staring at Zaveid who hadn’t moved from his place yet, the words that the pendulums performer himself had told him the day before appeared in his head.

_At some point you’ll find that person. And then you’ll stop thinking that being with someone is ‘incredibly troublesome’_

Dezel let out a sigh full of relief, because finally he could explain the cause of the uneasiness that had been invading him since the day before when thinking about Zaveid:

He had fallen in love with him. And although probably he had been falling for him gradually without even noticing it, it had been after seeing Zaveid lose his control like that on his behalf when he had finally realized it.

When the crowd finally dissolved, Lailah approached Zaveid and settled a hand on his shoulder, causing him to almost jump surprised since he had been lost in his thoughts.

“Are you alright?”, Lailah asked with a soft voice, and even if Zaveid smiled it wasn’t his usual smile. It was one way more strained.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m going to be training in the big top for a while, call me if you need help with something”

Without giving Lailah time to say anything more he left towards the camp, and Dezel felt a pang of sadness when Zaveid didn’t dedicate even one look towards him. In fact, it looked as if he had averted his eyes just when Dezel had tried to establish eye contact.

“Alright, let’s do as Lafarga has said”, Eizen said then, “Rose and Dezel, you should train with your new tools to be prepared for tonight show. And Edna, can you begin to train without me for a little while? Lailah and I have to check some things first”

The girls immediately nodded and began to follow Lailah but Dezel didn’t move. He had been lost in his thoughts and hadn’t heard what Eizen had said.

“Dezel?”, Eizen called him, causing the boy to come back to the reality, “is something wrong?”

Dezel was about to shake his head but at the last moment he decided not to do so. In fact, he decided to do just the contrary because he had the feeling that Eizen’s always good advices were what he needed the most right then.

“Eizen…regarding Zaveid…”, he stopped.

“Yes?”, Eizen asked with a calm tone.

Dezel gulped. Damn, to say it aloud was harder than he had initially expected.

 “I think I love him”, Dezel practically snapped while averting his eyes with embarrassment, “I mean for real, not like you love Edna…I mean, I know that you love Edna for real but what I’m trying to say is…”

Dezel shut up when Eizen settled a hand over his shoulder, and when Dezel dared to look at the blond again he realized that he was smiling with affection, so he deduced that Eizen had known since the start what he was going to say.

“I get it. You are in love with him”

Dezel couldn’t help to blush because hearing that coming from another person’s mouth was even more embarrassing if possible.

“Y-yes, that’s it. Although I suppose that telling him how I feel right now will be useless”

Even if he tried to adopt a resigned tone, inevitably some frustration slipped. After all, being a guy and falling in love with someone whose alias was ‘the Ladykiller’ was certainly ironic.

“Yes, you’re right, it will be useless…”, Eizen agreed, but just when Dezel was going to avert his eyes with sadness Eizen continued, “right now”

Dezel’s eyes opened wide while looking at Eizen.

“Right now?”, he repeated.

Eizen nodded.

“Yes. Now he only sees you like a little brother, so if you confess to him now he’ll reject you for sure”

Dezel gulped.

“Then…what you’re telling is that I have to wait?”

Eizen nodded again.

“Yes. Wait at least another couple of years”, when seeing the way Dezel’s eyes opened wide Eizen smiled apologetically, “I know that it seems like a really long time but believe me, it’s the best. Because even if right now you seem to be sure about your feelings for him, maybe in a couple of weeks you discover that you’ve mistaken a deep feeling of gratitude for love”

Dezel opened his mouth to protest but Eizen didn’t let him.

“Believe me, I know what I’m talking about. When I was around your age, I thought that I was in love with Lafarga and I confessed to him”, Dezel’s eyes opened so much that Eizen chuckled, “yes, just Lailah knows about this. Anyway, when I did that, Lafarga told me the same that I’m telling you right now and he was right. Eventually, my ‘love’ for him disappeared, and now I just see him as a father, or as a _really_ older brother”

Dezel couldn’t help to chuckle when Eizen spelled the word ‘really’ with emphasis on purpose.

“So…”, Eizen placed his other hand over his shoulder, “be a little patient and wait. And if in a couple of years you keep feeling the same, then don’t hesitate and confess to that idiot”

Dezel bit his bottom lip.

“But what if by then he has already someone?”, he asked, without being able to help his voice from trembling, but to his surprise Eizen shook his head with confidence.

“That’s not going to happen. I’ve known Zaveid since we were little, and I know him well enough to assure you that even if right now he likes to fool around, he really wants a person that understands him at his fullest and that shares his interest. And there’s only one person that meets those conditions”, Eizen settled his index finger on Dezel’s nose playfully, “and that’s you, Dezel”

Dezel gulped and hugged Eizen with such force that the blond boy exhaled a gasp.

“You’re welcome”, Eizen said with a tender tone, returning the hug, and even if Dezel had liked to thank him verbally, he didn’t dare to do so. He was too afraid of beginning to cry out of relief.

“Okay, now before you go to train do me a favor and go to see Zaveid”, Eizen commented when they separated, “I think that the idiot is afraid of having scared you”

“Scared me? Why?”, Dezel asked with confusion.

“Lafarga told you about his past, right?”, Dezel nodded, “well, the thing is that when he was still at that horrible orphanage, he was about to kill a man while trying to defend another kid, and instead of thanking him the kid in question ran away from him, saying that he was a monster”

Dezel frowned and snorted.

“What an idiot”, he said with such sincerity that Eizen chuckled.

“I don’t think that that kid planned to hurt Zaveid, but the truth is that the incident caused a great impact on him, so I think it’s rather probable that when acting like that with your stepfather he was in part afraid of having disappointed you”

Dezel nodded.

“Okay, then I’ll go to say him that a ‘Wind Seraph’ like me doesn’t get so easily scared”, Dezel said with such a purposely arrogant tone that Eizen laughed.

“Well said”, he said with a wide smile.

Dezel was about to finally leave but at the last moment he turned to look at Eizen.

“Umh… what I’ve told you about Zaveid…”, he began with a nervous tone.

“My lips are sealed”, Eizen winked at him.

Dezel smiled with gratitude and after thanking Eizen he finally went towards the big top to find Zaveid already there.

Dezel gulped, feeling his heart become crazy while looking at Zaveid training. Damn, he better learn fast how to hide his recently discovered feelings or the next two years would be eternal.

At that moment, Zaveid finally noticed his presence, and all the nervousness that Dezel was feeling until then evaporated when seeing the apprehension that passed through Zaveid’s eyes momentarily, as if he was fearing his reaction.

That idiot.... after all the damn things that Zaveid had done for him all those years was he really thinking that Dezel could be afraid of him?

“Hey, Dezel-chan”, Zaveid said with a tone that tried to sound as nonchalant as always but that had an unmistakable hint of nervousness on it, “umh…”, and now he hesitated, seriously?, “if you wanted to train here alone I can come back later so…”

Zaveid shut up when Dezel suddenly approached him until being just in front of him to fix his angry green eyes on him.

“I’m not scared of you”, Zaveid’s eyes opened wide when hearing Dezel’s firm words, “Do you remember when I joined the Windriders and you promised that you would protect me? That you would stop with all you had the people who tried to hurt me? That’s exactly what you’ve done today. So…”, Dezel hugged Zaveid, and although he was in part afraid of the pendulum performer noticing his too racing heart he knew that he had done the correct thing because Zaveid immediately relaxed, “…thank you. Thank you so much. And stop saying idiot things like me wanting to train alone because now I am a Wind Seraph like you and the Wind Seraphs have to be _always_ together”

A silence settled between them, a silence that caused Dezel’s heart to become even crazier if possible. But when finally Zaveid exhaled a deep breath and enclosed his arms around his body as well he felt so damn good that he had to bite his bottom lip not to cry.

 “Damn, you’re really something, you know?”, Zaveid said with an affectionate tone before kissing the side of his head softly, the gesture causing Dezel’s breath to hitch, “thanks, Dezel-chan. You’re a really good kid”

Despite the tender words, Dezel couldn’t help to feel a pang of frustration when being called ‘kid’. Eizen was right. It was too early to say Zaveid the truth about his feelings because right now Zaveid only looked at him as a kid, probably as a little brother, so even if it was frustrating he had to wait. 

However, there was something that he knew without a shadow of a doubt:

He was not going to stop loving Zaveid. Never. And if he had been brave enough to keep his eyes locked on Zaveid  during his previous speech, maybe he would have been able to see that the expression that had appeared for a very brief moment in Zaveid’s face when looking at him wasn’t precisely an expression that someone used to have when looking at his little brother. But well, since Zaveid made sure to immediately remove that expression from his face it was very unlikely that Dezel had noticed it.

“Okaaay, and now since you seem so proud of finally being a Wind Seraph”, Zaveid said with a playful tone after releasing him, “why don’t you show me the awesome show that you’re going to do tonight?”

Dezel smiled, and after extracting his pendulums with an exaggerate movement he adopted his starting position.

“Pay attention, old man”, Dezel’s smile widened when Zaveid half-closed his eyes at him when being called that, “these are going to be the movements that would make me be the BEST of Wind Seraphs”

Zaveid laughed loudly when hearing Dezel’s challenging tone.

“Bring it on then, Dezel ‘of the Green Eyes’. Bring it on”

* * *

 

**2 years later (6 years ago the present day)**

 “Alright, you’re doing it great. Keep going like that a little more”

Dezel took a deep a breath while taking another step, making sure to keep his hands extended at either side of his body. Then, when his foot finally made contact with the rope, he exhaled his breath slowly before holding it up again to take the next step.

“Yes, very well”, Lafarga said from the ground, “now grab your pendulum”

Dezel licked his bottom lip while lowering his right arm slowly at the same time that he raised his left hand to keep the balance, managing to extract the pendulum after some tense seconds.

“Very well”, Lafarga praised, “and now the difficult part: do one of your usual movements with it”

Dezel thought for a moment and after deciding what he was going to do he began to adopt his starting position, bending a little his legs and leaning forwards just a little to…

“I’m baaaack!!!”

Dezel exhaled a cry from surprise and after flapping rather funnily during some seconds in a desperate attempt to keep his balance he ended falling all the way down until hitting the giant matt that was placed just below the tightrope.

“Bastard”, Dezel snarled, glaring at Zaveid who at that moment was laughing rather loudly, “if you hadn’t shouted like that I would have made it!”

“Sorry, Dezel-chan, but if you are so easily distracted that means that you still have a lot to learn”, Zaveid said with a teasing tone.

“Zaveid is completely right”, Lafarga agreed, “when you are performing the people who are observing you aren’t going to be silent, so you have to learn to keep your concentration under those conditions” 

Dezel crossed his arms in front of his chest and averted his eyes.

“Come on, don’t be frustrated”, Lafarga commented, “it’s the first time that you manage to reach the center of the tightrope in less than thirty seconds. And you’ve even managed to extract your pendulum without falling”

“Yeah, that’s rather impressive”, Zaveid said with a smile, and since this time there wasn’t any hint of joking in his voice Dezel’s tension disappeared a little.

“Well, at least now the next time that this idiot enters shouting like crazy I won’t fall”, Dezel said with a resigned tone while removing an elastic band from his wrists to pull up his now rather long hair in a ponytail.

“Dezel-chan, your words hurt my feelings…”, Dezel’s heart skip a beat when suddenly Zaveid enclosed an arm around his shoulders, his face suddenly so close to his own that he could perfectly admire the different tones of oranges of the pendulum performer’s eyes, “damn, what has happened to the cute kid that a some years ago admired me instead of insulting me?”

Dezel snorted when hearing Zavedi’s purposely offended tone in an attempt to hide how happy he was after hearing Zaveid’s suggesting that he didn’t consider him a kid anymore.

“The kid has simply grown up, Zaveid”, Lafarga said with a smile, “assume it: he’s almost a man already”

Zaveid let out a resigned sigh before finally releasing Dezel.

“Bah! He hasn’t even gone out with a girl yet so he has a long way to go to become a man”

 Zaveid’s words mixed with his teasing tone made Dezel blush.

“Tsk, maybe I’m already going out with someone and you simply don’t know it”, he replied, “not everyone likes to share his private life so easily, you know?”

To Dezel’s surprise, Zaveid’s expression turned a little serious just for a tiny moment before recovering his usual animated one.

“Oh? Then does that mean that there is already someone special in your life, Dezel-chan?”, he asked while crossing his arms, and even if his tone was as casual as always his eyes were fixing on Dezel with more interest than usual.

Dezel gulped. Crap, if Lafarga wasn’t there maybe it would be a good moment to finally say Zaveid what he had been hiding during the last two years…

“Zaveid, shouldn’t you leave already instead of interrogating the poor kid?”, Lafarga asked with a certain reproachful tone, “I thought that you were going to Marlind to see your girlfriend”

…And well, of course if Zaveid and Katie weren’t still together Dezel wouldn’t have so many doubts about confessing his feelings.

“Yeah, but I’ve promised the guys who are going to hunt that I’ll give them a hand, so I’ll go after that”, Zaveid said with a nonchalant tone that caused Lafarga to sigh.

“You better take good care of her. She is a really good girl”

After Lafarga left, there was a brief silence before Dezel broke it, even if he knew that it was going to be a bad idea because surely Zaveid’s answers were going to hurt.

“At the end you are going to have to change your alias”

Dezel forced himself to speak with a joking tone that caused Zaveid to chuckle.

“Nah, I like it how it sounds too much”

“At least, Lailah will be happy”, Dezel praised himself when managing to adopt a casual tone, “after all you’ve finally stopped fooling around after finding the person you love”

If Dezel hadn’t been busy rolling up his pendulums on purpose to avoid to look at Zaveid’s face, he would have probably caught the way Zaveid gulped almost imperceptibly before finally answering.

“Yeah, you’re right”, Zaveid said simply, and even if Dezel was expecting that answer he couldn’t help to feel a pang of pain. Fuck, he really had to love that girl really much if he was using that kind of soft voice when speaking about her. And damn, that hurt.

 “Zaveid, Dezel”, at that moment Eizen entered the tent, “we’re having quite a trouble with the new tent. It seems that the merchant forgot to give us enough rope and we are improvising a little to manage to mount it, can you help us?”

“Sorry, Eizen, but I have some hunts to do before leaving. See you in a couple of days”, Zaveid said, and after dedicating a goodbye wink to Dezel he left, leaving Eizen and Dezel alone.

“I deduce that things hadn’t advanced between you two yet”, Eizen asked with a cautious tone.

It was more an affirmation than a question.

“No, they haven’t”, Dezel said with a resigned tone, scratching the back of his neck, “and at this rate they never will”

Eizen let out a soft sigh and patted Dezel’s arm with reassurance just when Edna was entering the tent.

“Come on, lazybones. Leave the romantic advices for later, there is a lot of work to do right now”

“Edna!”, Dezel hissed with nervousness, “don’t say things like that! What if someone hears you?!”

“Tsk. By now the only one who hadn’t realized yet how you feel about that baka is that baka himself. Even Rose discovered it for herself, and you know how oblivious she usually is.”

Dezel rubbed his eyes with patience while exhaling a soft ‘damn’, making Eizen chuckle.

“Edna, don’t tease Dezel. The poor thing has enough with being in love with Zaveid”

“You’re not helping, Eizen”, Dezel commented still rubbing his eyes, causing the blond man to laugh again.

“Come on, let’s go to help the others”

Eizen palmed Dezel’s back before joining his sister and after exhaling a sigh Dezel followed them. Fortunately some hours of mechanic job would help him forget for some moments his crush for that idiot.

* * *

“Yeah!! You did it!!”

Dezel couldn’t help to smile widely when hearing Rose below him laughing with happiness and clapping her hands almost hysterically.

 _Finally_ after another two weeks he had managed to keep his balance on the tightrope while doing one of his pendulums movements.

“Hey, now try a harder one!!”, Rose shouted with enthusiasm.

“Tsk, I’m probably going to fall”, Dezel replied.

“Come on, don’t be so pessimist! A Wind Seraph should always be sure of himself!”

Dezel shook his head but did as Rose said, and to his surprise even if he was about to fall at the last moment he managed to keep standing.

“See?! See?! I was right! ”, Rose exclaimed, “now an _even_ harder one!”

“Damn, it’s a luck that you aren’t my trainer, you are stricter than Lafarga _and_ Zaveid together”

“Of course I am”, the girl said with a triumphant tone, “and now stop complaining and show me your best move!”

“Hai, ma’am”

Even if he replied with irony, his smile didn’t abandon his face at any moment while doing movement after movement, and in fact when he finally fell from the tightrope almost fifteen minutes later it was because he had decided to do so.

“So…”, Rose said with a teasing tone once he was on the ground again, “refresh my memory, who was the one who three days ago was frustrated because, according to him, he was unable to keep his balance?”

Dezel exhaled a resigned sigh.

“Me”, he admitted.

“Aaand who was the one who said that you will manage to do it by the end of the week?”

Dezel exhaled another sigh.

“You”, he admitted, making the girl laugh.

“Okay, then since I was right you’ll give me your dessert during the next week”

“Hah? But we didn’t make any bet!”, Dezel protested.

“Nope, but I’ve been the one who has been forced to stand your protests for _two weeks_ ”, she replied, and certainly he couldn’t deny the girl’s words.

“I’ll give you my dessert for the next four days. _And_ just if it’s not flan. Eizen’s flans are too good, sorry”

Rose pretended to think but at the end she nodded.

“Okay, I benevolently accept your conditions”, she said with a superior tone that caused Dezel to roll his eyes but there was a hint of a smile on his face.

Five minutes or so later they arrived at the tent to have lunch with the rest to find Lailah, Eizen and Edna already there, preparing everything.

“Eizen, can you do me a favor?”, Dezel asked the moment he entered.

“Depending on what the favor is about”, Eizen said with a wink.

“About the dessert of the next four days…”

“Hey!! That’s cheati…!!” 

Dezel settled a hand over Rose’s mouth immediately.

“Yes? What about the dessert of the next four days?”, Eizen repeated with confusion while Rose kept struggling to remove Dezel’s hand from his mouth.

“Can you make flan?”, Dezel asked, causing Eizen to raise his eyebrows surprised.

“Well, if everyone agrees…”

“Yes”, Edna said immediately.

“Yes, I agree too”, Lailah said with a cheery tone, approaching Eizen to enclose her arms around his waist from behind and leaning her chin on the blond’s right shoulder, “your flans are always delicious”

Eizen smiled and kissed Lailah briefly on the lips. They had begun to go out almost two years ago and the funny part was that absolutely no one was surprised about it, as if everyone would have known from the start that it was going to eventually happen.

“Sorry, Rose”, Eizen’s tone sounded apologetic tone when looking at the defeated redhead, “I don’t know why you didn’t want flans but it’s three against one”

Rose clicked her tongue and turned to glare at Dezel.

“Cheater”

“Thanks for the compliment”, Dezel said while taking his usual sit.

 “Don’t we wait for Zaveid?”, Rose asked with surprise when seeing Eizen, Lailah and Edna began to eat immediately.

“He is at Marlind at this moment”, Eizen commented, and when everyone threw a side glance towards Dezel, he added, “no, he hasn’t gone to see Katie, it was something else”

“Something else?”, Dezel repeated with curiosity but Eizen just shrugged.

“He just told me not to wait him for lunch, that’s all I know”

During the rest of the lunch, Dezel couldn’t help to keep wondering where Zaveid had gone, but it wasn’t until later that day, just when everyone had finished their three hours of training and were about to have a rest when Zaveid finally returned. Wearing a t-shirt.

“Okay, who are you and what have you done with Zaveid?”, Eizen said the moment he saw his friend appear, causing Zaveid to begin to laugh.

“Come on, is that weird to see me wearing clothes?”, he joked.

“Yes, it is”, Dezel, Rose and Edna replied at the same time, making him laugh again.

“So what is the meaning of you being decent for once?”, Lailah added with curiosity.

Zaveid smirked and then, slowly, he began to remove his t-shirt, and if the sight of those sinfully built muscles being gradually at full display wasn’t enough to make Dezel’s heart beat hysterically inside his chest, the fact that now there were several tattoos covering Zaveid’s skin made the younger Wind Seraph forget how to breath for a moment.

Because damn, Dezel had always thought that Zaveid was handsome. Then, when he discovered his feelings for him, he added ‘hot’ to the mix. But _now_ with those white lines adorning his sculpted chest and powerful arms…damn, he honestly thought that there couldn’t exist a more gorgeous man in the damn planet.

“What do you think?”, Zaveid said with a happy tone, extending his arms to the sides so everyone could admire his tattoos, “they are cool, right?”

“Yeah, they are”, Rose said with an enthusiastic tone, immediately approaching him to grab Zaveid’s left arm so that she could observe better the tattoo that was there.

“They aren’t bad”, Edna agreed, and she saying something like that could be considered a big compliment.

“And just when I thought that you were finally going to dress like a decent person”, Lailah said with a resigned tone, causing Eizen to kiss her softly on the cheek while chuckling.

“Come on, Lailah, even if you don’t like tattoos you have to admit that they look good on him”, Eizen said, and although Lailah sighed again she ended nodding while smiling.

“Yes, the truth is that they totally suit your style”

“And what do you think, Dezel-chan?”, Dezel jumped when suddenly Zaveid said his name, insulting himself internally when realizing that he had been staring at Zaveid’s muscles until then without paying attention to what the rest had said.

“Y-yeah, they are cool”, Dezel said, not knowing how he was able to answer when his throat was almost dry, “do they mean something?”

“Yep”, Zaveid nodded, “These marks are the symbols that a really old ancient tribe that adored the God of the Wind Sylph had on their skins, and since the name of the ‘Wind Seraphs’ comes from that tribe I totally wanted to wear these marks too”

While talking Zaveid reached back with his hands to push his hair up, turning around so the rest could see that the tattoos of his front kept traveling towards his back, and taking opportunity that Zaveid wasn’t looking at him Dezel dared to lick his lips, trying to wet them a little.

“Did it hurt much?”, Rose asked with curiosity.

“Weeell, the ones on my chest, arms and back nah, not at all”, Zaveid said with a dismissive tone before, “but the one _down there_ yeah, it’s been quite a little painful”

Dezel frowned.

“Down there?”, he repeated without thinking, and he immediately regretted doing so because Zaveid smirked.

“Oh, so you hadn’t noticed that the tattoos kept traveling down as well?”, Zaveid commented with an amused tone, signaling a tattoo that begun just in his left hip and that _clearly_ hinted that it didn’t end just there.

“Wait”, Lailah opened her eyes wide, “are you saying that you have tattoos on…?”

Lailah didn’t continue, she simply blushed and gesticulated with her hands rather funnily.

“On your dick?”, Rose completed with surprise.

“ _Rose_!”, Lailah exclaimed bright red, “you shouldn’t say those words so easily!”

“Come on, Lailah, they are old enough already to be able to say _those words_ ”, Eizen said with a teasing tone, making the red girl to glare at him.

“Yeah, Rose-chan, right there”, Zaveid said with an amused smile settling his hands on his belt with casualness, “would any of you like me to show it to you…?”

“NO!”

Dezel regretted immediately to have shouted as well, because that caused Zaveid to look at him with surprise, since obviously he was just expecting that it was Lailah the only one who reacted with that emphasis.

Dezel averted his eyes insulting himself internally. Damn. How much of an idiot he was?

 “H-hey, it was just a joke”, Zaveid said with a tranquilizing tone, and if Dezel hadn’t been averting his eyes he would have noticed that Zaveid’s smile was a little forced, but he had already enough with the _little problem_ that had settled just in his lower half while seeing Zaveid’s body exhibition.

Damn. He had to leave right then if he didn’t want Zaveid to notice the unusual tightness of his pants but he needed an excuse if he didn’t want to result suspicious…

“Dezel, are you alright? You look ill”

Dezel looked at Edna with surprise. What…?”

“Edna is right, let me see…”, Lailah suddenly approached him and settled a hand over his forehead, “oh my, you’re burning!”

Dezel frowned. What? He was feeling perfectly well, and he was sure that his body temperature was just fine.

“I told you that training during three hours when you were not feeling well wasn’t a good idea”, Eizen said with a reproaching tone, “so don’t you dare to protest and go to rest in the caravan”

And then Dezel finally understood: the others were creating an escape for him.

“Oi, are you okay, Dezel-chan?”,  Dezel could feel guiltiness invading him when hearing Zaveid’s sincere worried tone, “do you want me to accompany you to the nursery to see if…?”

“Don’t worry, he just needs to rest”, Rose said immediately, approaching Dezel and grabbing his arm with resolve, “come on, Dezel. I’ll take care of you”

Dezel let Rose drag himself out of Zaveid’s view, and again he failed to see the sudden tension that settled on the pendulum performer when seeing the two youngsters leave towards the caravan with Rose grabbing Dezel so closely.

* * *

Five minutes later Rose and him were in front of Dezel caravan.

“I’ll be training in the little forest that are passed the camp”, Rose said, “if you want let’s meet there to practice our combined show. It would be better than doing it on the camp because if Zaveid sees us he will discover that you weren’t sick”

“Thanks, Rose”, Dezel said with a certain embarrassed tone.

“You’re welcome”, Rose said with a wink, “although if I were you I would begin to wear looser pants just in case something like that happens again…”

Rose waved her hand goodbye while chuckling and left Dezel finally alone.

When he was finally inside the caravan, he made sure to put the bolt and after thinking for a moment he decided not to risk and use the bathroom instead of the main room.

However, before that he knelt next to his bed to extract an almost empty little bottle from under it. Then, he finally entered the bathroom, and after making sure to put the bolt as well he filled the bathtub.

After that, he undressed himself completely, and he couldn’t help to hiss in relief when finally releasing his almost fully hard member from the confinement of his clothes. Then, he finally entered the bathtub and after leaning his back against the border he immediately began to stroke his member.

He knew after just some seconds that doing that wasn’t going to be enough to make him finish, so he grabbed the little bottle that he had placed next to him. After pouring almost all its content (that it wasn’t much) on his right hand, he flexed his legs and opened them so he could have better access to his own entrance and after letting out a soft sigh he finally reached down to introduce his two coated fingers on it.

Dezel took a deep breath while lettin his head fall backwards and forced himself to relax while moving with a steady but confident rhythm his fingers in and out. Now it didn’t take him more than a half-a-minute to get used to that intrusion but he still remembered the first time that he tried to finger himself.

 At that moment, he just managed to put a single digit inside because the sensation was extremely weird and uncomfortable, but now in just a couple of minutes he could add a third finger and just feeling a little discomfort that almost immediately was replaced by intense pleasure when he managed to grasp his prostrate, to the point that he had to bite his bottom lip with force to prevent the moans from escaping his mouth, an extremely warm but satisfying tension settled on his stomach while he kept assaulting that awesome spot over and over again.

Damn, he still remembered the first time that he had discovered that such a switch existed inside his body. The shout that he exhaled when experimenting that unexpected but incredibly good sensation for the first time was so loud that for a moment he feared that someone began to knock the bathroom door to ask if everything was right, but fortunately that didn’t happen.

Dezel laughed with self-mockery, remembering the sex talk that Eizen gave Rose and him four years ago and the words that he himself said: ‘ _when will we stop thinking that sex is gross?’._

In his case, it took him a little to feel curiosity of what sex was about, and even after acknowledging his feelings for Zaveid, at first when thinking about the pendulum performer and him being together he just pictured them doing the same things that they did until now. He didn’t feel yet the desire of sharing with Zaveid more than an emotional bond.

However, that changed when he accidentally caught Lailah and Eizen (who had begun to go out a couple of months after Dezel discovered his own crush) in a rather passionate making out session.

That was the first time that he saw two people kiss _for real_ , because until then even if Eizen and Lailah didn’t have any problem to kiss in public, the kisses that they used to share when there were people around were rather discrete, almost chaste, but the way they were kissing at that moment, when thinking that no one was observing them, wasn’t like that at all. It was primal, passionate, and that was the first time that Dezel found himself thinking about how it would feel to be kissed like that by Zaveid. How it would feel to be pinned against the wall as Eizen had Lailah at that moment while allowing him to suck at her neck. How it would feel to go even further and have sex with Zaveid.

After the thought of sharing more than an emotional bond with Zaveid appeared on his mind, certain facts that until then he had seen as completely natural began to make his body heat up and his heart race. Like seeing Zaveid’s sweated body while training, or waking up and discover that Zaveid was practically occupying his bed (the problem of keeping having three beds in the same caravan was that there was barely space between them).

Then, one day he caught Zaveid completely naked just when he was getting out of the shower, and he had his first erection caused for a sexual related thought. After that, he summoned up the courage to ask Eizen about how sex between men work, and Dezel was immensely grateful when the man answered all his questions, even the stupidest ones, without laughing any single time. In fact, the blond was kind enough to be the one in buying his first bottle of lube.

And well, after hearing Eizen’s talk it was a matter of time that he decided to try what Eizen had called ‘preparation for sex’, the same way that it was a matter of time that he soon began to imagine that it was Zaveid the one that was moving inside him instead of his own fingers, and consequently his desire for the pendulum performer began to gradually grow more and more. And damn, the fact that now Zaveid was even hotter with those tattoos wasn’t going to make things easier.

Dezel groaned when feeling himself getting close, so he used his left hand to begin to stroke his member at the same time that he kept moving his fingers with a more and more erratic and desperate rhythm, and since the image of Zaveid settling his hands on his belt to lower his pants was rather clear in his mind it didn’t pass much time until he finally came rather intensely while letting out a rather undignified moan.

Dezel let out a deep breath and closed his eyes while going down from the high of his orgasm, and as always when he finally recovered himself he couldn’t help to blush with certain embarrassment. Damn, the worst part of doing that even if it felt good was that he didn’t know how the hell to look at Zaveid in the eyes during the next hours.

After dressing himself he made sure to grab the bottle of lube to throw it away in a place that wasn’t his own room because he would die from embarrassment if Zaveid found it. Then, he finally left the caravan and went towards the forest that Rose had mentioned to train a little.  Fortunately, spending some time doing exhausting physical exercise would help him to be completely calmed by when he saw Zaveid again.

* * *

 “Argh, if I had managed to hit you on the chest I would have won”

“Well, but you haven’t”, Dezel said with satisfaction, causing Rose to stick her tongue out.

After an hour of training, Dezel and Rose came back to the camp just when it was beginning to get dark.

“After dinner I want a revenge”, Rose demanded with a sulking tone before disappearing towards her own caravan, not letting Dezel time to reply and causing him to smile with amusement. He certainly had to admit that hanging out with Rose was the best way to forget his problems.

After taking another (and this time completely innocent) bath, he went towards the tent in which they used to have dinner, since that night it was his turn to help Lailah to cook.

“Hi, Dezel-san”, Lailah welcomed him with her usual smile, “have you _rested_ well?”

Dezel had to suppress a smile when hearing Lailah’s purposely emphatic tone.

“Yes, I have”, he began to place the plates on the table and frowned, “umh…there are seven plates instead of six. Is Lafarga going to have dinner with us?”

Just before Lailah could answer Zaveid entered the tent, and Dezel was glad when finding himself able to look at the man in the eyes with just a little of nervousness.

“Oh, so you’ve come back already”, Zaveid commented while sitting down, and even if he was smiling his eyes were more serious than usual, “where have you been? Because when I’ve gone to check out how you were you have disappeared”

Dezel gulped. Well, thankfully Zaveid hadn’t come just when he was doing _that_ on the bathroom.

“W-well, after resting for a little while I’ve felt way better so I’ve gone to train with Rose a little in the forest”

Dezel used the excuse of being preparing the table not to look at Zaveid, so he missed the way Zaveid clenched his jaw for just a brief instant when mentioning the redhead.

“So…”, Lailah intervened after a rather awkward silence settled between the two Wind Seraphs, “when does Katie arrive?”

 “She has to be about to”, Zaveid answered simply.

Dezel managed to keep his face almost imperturbable. Well, now he knew the reason for the extra plate.

A couple of minutes later Rose, Edna and Eizen finally entered the tent as well.

 “Zaveid, Katie has just arrived”, Eizen commented.

“Wow, perfect timing”, Zaveid said with a smile, but then he frowned when seeing the serious expression of the blond, “what’s wrong?”

After a brief pause Eizen spoke.

“I think that you should go to see her. She seemed to bring some bad news”

Everyone fixed his eyes on Zaveid, who raised his eyes with surprise before standing up from his site.

“Okay, I’ll come back in a bit”

Zaveid left the tent with his expression calm but his eyes showing concern while the rest sat down, in silence.

 “Tsk, I just hope that she isn’t pregnant”

“Edna!”,  Lailah exclaimed while Dezel got incredibly pale, to the point that Rose immediately filled his glass with water and offered it to him. Oh crap, he had never thought about that possibility but if that was the case, he could definitely say goodbye to his opportunity to be with Zaveid.

“I don’t think so”, Eizen say with conviction, “so let’s just wait for him to come back”

During the next five minutes no one said anything nor eat anything. They just remained sitting on the table in silence, and when finally after that time Zaveid entered the tent again Dezel had to suppress the urge to take a deep breath.

“At the end we’ll be six for dinner”, Zaveid said simply, completely unaware of the tension of his friends.

“Oh, so Katie isn’t coming?”, Lailah asked with a cautious tone.

Zaveid shook his head and took a sit next to her.

“No, she has only passed by to tell me that she is going to live in Ladylake from now on and that consequently she isn’t going to come back in quite a long time”

Everyone let out a relieved sigh that caused Zaveid to raise his eyebrows surprised.

“Thank goodness that Edna was mistaken”, Lailah exclaimed settling a hand over her chest.

“Edna?”, Zaveid asked with curiosity, looking at the bond girl, “Lailah-chan, what do you mean with…?”

“Never mind”, Eizen intervened, “let’s eat already. The food is getting cold”

Dezel had to bite his bottom lip not to laugh when seeing Zaveid’s looking at everyone alternatively with confusion. Well, at least the fear of Zaveid having an unexpected child had vanished. It was something.

* * *

After the dinner, Zaveid announced that he was going to remain awake a little longer but the rest decided to go to sleep, Dezel included. After all, the extra training with Rose had exhausted him more than he had initially expected.

However, just when he was about to enter his caravan to finally go to sleep, someone settled a hand over his shoulder from behind, causing him to exhale a cry while turning around.

“Ups, sorry! I didn’t want to scare you”

Dezel’s mouth fell opened when finding Katie just in front of him.

“What are you doing here?”, he asked, and when realizing that he had used a too rude tone he added, “I mean, Zaveid had told us that you were going to Ladylake tonight”

Katie nodded.

“Yes, he is right. I’m coming back right now but before leaving there is something that I would like you to tell him”

Suddenly Katie grabbed both of his hands while looking at him smiling with affection, causing Dezel to show a confused expression since he was not expecting that gesture.

“Please, tell him that my new boyfriend in Ladylake is way way _way_ better than him. And that at the end it wasn’t that bad that he broke up with me because of you”

Dezel’s eyes opened at his maximum when hearing Katie’s words.

What the hell was that girl saying?!

“I…”, Dezel opened and close his mouth a couple of times, trying to find something to say, “I don’t understand what…”

“I know”, Katie said, “you just go to speak with Zav and don’t let him go away without giving you a proper explanation. Otherwise, that idiot would keep hiding what he truly feels for you”

Dezel had barely time to assimilate what Katie had just said because at that moment the girl suddenly hugged him.

“Take care, Dezel. And please, take care of Zav too”

And with that, Katie left, leaving Dezel alone with a dumbfounded expression on his face.

Okay, even if he didn’t understand completely what had just happened there were three things that Katie had mentioned that had caught his attention:

First: that Katie had a boyfriend in Ladylake.

Second: that Zaveid had broken up with her.

Third, and the most important: that Zaveid was hiding his true feelings for him.

Dezel took a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself down, but he soon discovered that it was going to be impossible since Katie’s words were still resounding in his head, especially the last one, because  if what the girl had just said was true and Zaveid was hiding his true feelings for him then that could mean…

Dezel shook his head. No, he couldn’t let his hopes up. Not yet. First, he had to do what Katie had suggested.  He had to ask Zaveid right then, even if he had to force the truth out of that stubborn man, because by then he already knew that despite his spontaneous appearance, Zaveid was the kind of man that kept everything to himself even more than him.

After making up his mind, Dezel went towards the big top where Zaveid had disappeared some moments ago, and by when he finally reached it his heart was beating so fast that it was as if it was going to leave his chest at any moment.

After taking another deep breath Dezel finally dared to enter the tent. This time, instead of training Zaveid was sharpening his pendulums while sitting over the little platform where Rose used to announce the Windriders to the public, and Dezel couldn’t help to gulp again because even if he preferred Zaveid’s usual animated mood he had to admit that the concentrated expression that was adorning the man’s factions right then wasn’t not bad either.

At that moment, Zaveid finally noticed his presence, and then Dezel felt a pang of pain when seeing the way Zaveid automatically tensed for a moment. Damn, he seriously hoped to be right about Zaveid’s weird attitude because he was tired of waiting. He had already spent the last _two years_ waiting and it was enough, so for better or worse, he was going to clear things up with Zaveid that same night.

“Hey, Dezel-chan”, Zaveid said with his almost usual smile, “I thought that you had gone to sleep already, have you come to train or…”

“Why have you lied before?”

Dezel’s direct question made Zaveid look at him sincerely confused, so Dezel explained himself better, making sure not to avert his eyes from Zaveid’s ones.

“Before at the dinner you’ve said that Katie wasn’t going to come back because she was going to be at Ladylake”, Dezel crossed his arms in front of his chest, “but I know that’s not true”

Dezel was about to hit Zaveid when the man let out a surprised laugh. Damn, he was surely a great actor, pretending to be as calm as always even if the way he was grabbing his pendulum was everything but relaxed.

“Dezel-chan, I know that it’s difficult to believe that someone is disposed to go to such a far away place when a hot guy like me is around here but believe it or not, sometimes things like that happen”

Dezel ignored completely Zaveid’s joking tone and continued.

“Katie has gone to speak to me just when she was leaving the camp”, Dezel was about to pat himself in the back when Zaveid’s eyes turned serious for a brief second, “and she has told me that she has a boyfriend there”

Again, Dezel wanted to hit Zaveid when the man chuckled with embarrassment. Damn, he knew that it was going to be difficult to force the truth out of Zaveid but he hadn’t imagined that it would be _that_ difficult.

“Okay, you’ve got me there”, Zaveid stood up, “The truth is that I didn’t want to admit that Zaveid ‘the Ladykiller’ had been rejected so I purposely omitted that fact but don’t worry about me, Dezel-chan. I’m tough so I’ll get over it”

Zaveid winked at him and stood up, clearly hinting that the conversation was over, but Dezel wasn’t going to let him have his way.

Until then he had been hesitating in telling Zaveid his feelings because Katie was around, and because Zaveid had been keeping treating him like a kid during the six years that he had been with the Windriders. But now, Katie was gone, and even if he wasn’t completely sure about Zaveid’s feelings at least thanks to Katie’s words ( _that idiot would keep hiding what he truly feels for you_ ) now he knew that the possibility existed, and although Dezel didn’t know how the hell he had changed his mind so fast from practically hating that girl to believe her, he felt deep inside that what the Katie was saying was the truth.

For that reason, just when Zaveid was passing him, Dezel immediately moved to situate just in front of the older man, stopping his advances. As Katie had said, he wasn’t going to let the older Wind Seraph go away without giving him a proper explanation.

“That’s another lie”, Dezel snapped with conviction, “she has also told me that you were the one in breaking up with her because of me”

And then, although almost imperceptibly, Zaveid gulped, and Dezel could feel relief invading him.

That was all he needed to put all his doubts away, because since he knew the pendulum artist, _never_ once Zaveid had showed hesitation, so now he knew without a doubt that, for a reason that he still missed, Katie hadn’t lied. That idiot was trying to hide his true feelings.

“So…”, _okay, the moment of truth_ , Dezel thought to himself, “do you love me or not?”

Zaveid gulped again, this time more clearly, and then he spoke trying to use a fake animated tone that didn’t fool Dezel.

 “Of course I love you, Dezel-chan. After all you’re like a little brother to me so…”

And then, for once, Zaveid’s loquacity failed him when Dezel approached him until their faces were barely inches apart, so close that the younger Wind Seraph could feel Zaveid’s slightly uneven breathing against his.

“Sorry”, Dezel forced himself to adopt a voice that showed as much confidence as he himself had about his feelings for the pendulum performer, “but I’m not going to let you keep seeing me as a little brother”

And then, even if he was feeling his chest about to explode, Dezel grabbed Zaveid’s face with his both hands and pressed his lips against Zaveid’s ones, and even if Dezel knew that what he had just done couldn’t be considered a proper kiss, it was enough to make the older Wind Seraph’s breath hitch, and damn the expression that Zaveid  had when they finally separated was one so full of sincere surprise that Dezel would have burst out laughing at any other moment.

“D-Dezel-chan, listen to me…”, oh damn, Dezel had never imagined that he was going to hear such a babbling tone coming from Zaveid’s mouth,  “I think that maybe you are a little confused right now, it’s logical, you’re in that age and your hormones can be a little worked up so…”

Dezel shut Zaveid up with another press of lips that this time made Zaveid’s powerful body shudder.

“I’m not confused at all”

 Dezel spoke with conviction, fixing his green eyes on Zaveid’s orange ones, and when detecting some hesitation in them he kept speaking, although he couldn’t help to blush a little when saying the words that he had kept inside during all that time.

“I love you. I’ve been doing it for two years already. And if I haven’t told you anything before it’s because Eizen told me that you weren’t going to take my words seriously. And well, because you were with Katie and I couldn’t stand the idea of you rejecting me because of her”

Even if Dezel hadn’t spoken too much he had to take a deep breath, because even if he had liked to keep his confident attitude during all the conversation, now that it was his turn to wait to Zaveid’s answer he had to do a great effort to keep looking at Zaveid’s intense orange eyes, which now were showing a mix of deep relief, affection and another feeling that Dezel wasn’t able to pinpoint well but that made his heart skip a beat.

“So what?”, Dezel snapped after some seconds of silence, “are you going to keep insisting that I’m just a little brother to you or…?”

Dezel’s words died on his throat when Zaveid suddenly grabbed his chin and forced him to raise his face a little to deposit a soft kiss on his lips that made Dezel’s heart practically stop, an indescribable warming tension settling on the pitch of his stomach. Damn, if he was reacting so much just for that simple kiss he didn’t want to imagine how he would react when they did more.

After a few seconds, without letting Dezel time to react and kiss back, Zaveid stopped and embraced him tightly, and even if it wasn’t the first time that Zaveid hugged him, this time Dezel knew deep inside that it was different. That the way Zaveid’s arms were surrounding him, as if he didn’t want to let Dezel go, was completely new. And way way better.

“No, I won’t”, Zaveid turned a little his head to whisper his next words in Dezel’s ear, the tickling sensation together with the intensity of Zaveid’s voice causing Dezel to shiver, “I love you too, Dezel. Damn, you can’t possibly imagine how much”

The younger Wind Seraph’s blushed because it was the first time that Zaveid called him by his name with such tenderness without adding anything, but when Zaveid finally, _finally_ , said the words that he had been wishing to hear he felt close to cry right then and there, so in order to prevent that he immediately enclosed his arms around Zaveid’s waist as well while burying his head in the crook of his neck, almost suffocating because of the warmth that Zaveid’s body always radiated but he couldn’t care less. He had just confirmed that Zaveid loved him back and that was the only thing that mattered at that moment. 

“But Dezel-chan, are you sure about this?”, Zaveid said with a joking tone, “are you completely sure that you want to spend the rest of your life with someone whose alias is ‘the Ladykiller’? Around the world there surely are a lot of charming girls that would be happy to have you by their side”

Dezel exhaled a chuckle before looking at Zaveid again.

“Do I have to remind you that I’ve had two years to change my mind and I haven’t?”, Dezel said with an ironic tone causing Zaveid to laugh.

“You’re right, that’s certainly a good signal to assure our future together”, Zaveid said with a happy smile before leaning forward to kiss Dezel again, who this time was already prepared to answer to the extremely soft kiss, his chest clenching when feeling those also warm lips tasting his.  Damn, he couldn’t wait to be kissed by Zaveid properly, because even if those brief kiss were good after all the wait they weren’t enough at all.

“Just out of curiosity”, Zaveid asked when the (extremely brief) kiss finished, “you say that you fell in love with me two years ago but you remember the exact moment in which my awesome charms managed to seduce you?”

Dezel couldn’t help to chuckle when hearing Zaveid’s words. It was good to know that the fact that they were together now didn’t mean that Zaveid was going to stop teasing him, because even if he always protested he really liked that playful dynamic that he had shared with Zaveid since the moment they met.

“Well…I think that everything began when Katie came back and you said that you wanted to try to go out with her seriously. But when I realized that an exhibitionist playboy like you had managed to make fall for him was the day after that, when my stepfather showed up and you attacked him for my shake”

To Dezel’s surprise, when finishing talking instead of the reply that he had been expecting when calling Zaveid ‘exhibitionist playboy’, the older Wind Seraph was just staring at him in disbelief just before beginning to laugh.

“What?”, Dezel asked with confusion.

“Okay, Dezel-chan, we are definitely fated to be together”, Zaveid said with extremely amused tone, “I fell for you that same day as well”

Dezel’s eyes almost popped out from their sockets.

“What?!”

“Yep”, Zaveid said with a smile, “remember when that same day you came to see me after that to thank me for having protected you? Well, I’m pretty sure than it was at that precise moment when I stopped seeing you as a cute shrimp”

Dezel blinked in disbelief before hitting Zaveid’s chest, causing the older man to exhale a soft ‘ouch’.

 “Idiot! In that case why didn’t you say anything before?!”, Dezel exclaimed.

“Because you were just fourteen at that moment, Dezel-chan”, Zaveid reasoned, “and even if I don’t particularly mind to be called a pervert, I didn’t want to risk to scare you by confessing. After all, I thought that you still saw me as a big brother, so I decided to pretend that nothing had changed regarding my feelings for you and wait until you were at least an adult to, maybe, let you know”, Zaveid smiled apologetically, “I’m really sorry. I was so focused on hiding how I really felt that I completely overlooked your true feelings. If I had realized it, I would have said it to you right then even if I had to wait for you to grow up to be together”

Dezel’s frown gradually disappeared because he had to admit against his will that Zaveid’s way of acting was logic.

“Still I don’t know how you didn’t realize”, Dezel snapped, “everyone in the camp noticed it. Even Rose”, Dezel shut up when seeing Zaveid gulp, “what?”

“Nothing”, Zaveid said immediately, but Dezel raised a questioning eyebrow, indicating Zaveid to continue, “okay, I’m just curious, have you Rose and you gone out at any moment during these two years?”

“What? Of course not!”, Dezel said with an offended tone, “how could I have gone out with her if I was in love with _you_?”

“Okay, okay, I know that it’s probably been an stupid question but…”, Dezel was surprised when Zaveid scratched the back of his head with certain embarrassment, “…but when you said that you had gone to train with Rose alone in the forest I couldn’t help to think that maybe there had been something”

“Oh…”, Dezel smirked while crossing his arms, mimicking on purpose one of Zaveid’s usual expressions when he teased him, “so you were jealous…”

Dezel’s smirked widened when Zaveid blushed slightly.

“Yeah, I kind of was”, he admitted before adding with guiltiness, “and I know that I had no right to feel that way. After all I was with Katie even when you were the one who I truly loved”

Dezel gulped. There was something that he had wanted to ask for a while and now that Zaveid himself had brought the theme up was the perfect moment. 

 “About that...”, Dezel tried to use a casual tone, as if he didn’t particularly minded the answer he was going to obtain, “why did you keep being with her? Did you still like her?”

“No, I didn’t”, Zaveid replying so fast made Dezel relax a little, “in fact, just after realizing that I was never going to be able to love anyone but you, I went to talk to Katie and I told her that at the end I was unable to be with her. I even told her that I had fallen in love with someone else but that certain circumstances made impossible for us to be together”

“And even after knowing that she still wanted to be with you?”, Dezel asked with surprise.

“No, she didn’t, for that reason we broke up that same day”

Dezel’s eyes snap opened.

“Wait…”, Dezel said in disbelief, “do you mean that you haven’t broken up _tonight_?”, Zaveid nodded and Dezel’s eyes opened wider if possible, “but I don’t understand, you’ve been together during these two years…”

“No, Dezel-chan, we haven’t”, Zaveid said with a smile, “I just asked her to help me make it look that way, and she was kind enough to agree. However, today she has come to tell me that she had fallen in love with a guy from Marlind and she wasn’t going to be able to keep pretending to be with me because they were going to move to Ladylake”

Dezel opened and closed his mouth a couple of times in disbelief before speaking.

“Why?”, Dezel asked simply, and Zaveid understood that he was referring to the whole farce.

“Because it was the best way to hide the fact that Zaveid ‘the Ladykiller’ had lost his famous alias because of you”, Zaveid answered with a smile, “and if we had broken up just after saying you that I had the intention of going out with her for real, you would have suspected about my behavior”

“But if all that was to prevent me to discover that you loved me then why has she told me al lthat tonight? If she hadn’t done it, I wouldn’t probably be here now so…”

“Weeeell, about that…”, Zaveid chuckled a little nervously, “the truth is that even if I didn’t initially told Katie for whom I had fallen in love, she eventually discovered it, and she always insisted me that I should tell you the truth. So I think that when leaving she decided that it was time to push things a little”

Dezel gulped while feeling a lump on his throat.

“Damn, now I feel horrible. All this time I’ve been hating that girl without motive”, ”, he muttered with a guilty tone, causing Zaveid to smile.

“Yes, she is really an angel”, Zaveid let out a sigh and kissed Dezel on the forehead, “I’m sorry, Dezel, I should probably have listened to her and tell you the truth but I was so afraid of scaring you that I thought that the best option was to wait  ”

Even if a part of Dezel wanted to hit Zaveid for having made him worry during those two years, he was so happy to discover that he had been the only one that Zaveid had loved that he couldn’t help forgive the older Wind Seraph easily.

However, there was something that he still wanted to confirm.

“Then, if you haven’t been together for real…”, Dezel had to clear his throat to continue. Damn, what he was going to ask had made him nervous again, “…when you went to Marlind to see Katie, or when she came to the camp to see you and you two slept in the same caravan…”

As Dezel was expecting, Zaveid immediately caught what he was going to ask because he smiled with amusement.

“What? Do you want to know if we had sex?”

Dezel felt his cheeks burning but he forced not to avert his eyes while nodding.

Then, after a pause that looked way longer than it really was, Zaveid spoke.

“No, we hadn’t”, he said with a tender tone, “since the moment I acknowledged my feelings for you, it was completely impossible for me to picture myself loving _and_ desiring anyone that weren’t you”, Zaveid’s tone turned joking, “so praise me, Dezel-chan: the supposedly pervert Zaveid ‘the Ladykiller’ has been suffering for sexual abstinence during two whole years!”

Dezel gulped, the tension that he had felt for a moment when Zaveid had kissed him before coming back at full force to settle it in the pit of stomach to the point that it was almost painful.

And in fact, something of the overwhelming feelings that were assaulting him at that moment seemed to be showing in his face because Zaveid immediately spoke, misinterpreting the sudden strained expression that Dezel was wearing.

“Oi, but that doesn’t mean that I’m suggesting that we have to do anything now. I can wait all the time that it’s necessary until you feel like it so…”

“I don’t want to wait”

Dezel would have liked to be able to freeze the time at that moment to burn into his memory the completely astonished face that Zaveid showed at that moment.

“What?”

Dezel gulped. Zaveid’s tone had sounded calm, but it carried a hint of expectation.

“I don’t want to wait”, Dezel repeated, this time with a firmer voice.

For the first time in his life, Dezel experimented what ‘sexual tension’ was, because at that moment, while seeing Zaveid with all his body in tension and looking back at him with his orange eyes shining in a way that he had never seen until then, he felt for the first time how it was to want something (or in this case, _someone_ ) with such intensity that it almost hurt.

“Dezel-chan…”, Dezel gulped. Oh damn, Zaveid’s voice was lower, _way_ lower than usual, and it sounded extremely raspy and filled with barely suppressed emotion, “if you don’t mean what you’re saying, please, don’t keep talking. Because…”

Dezel had to bit his bottom lip not to let out a sigh when suddenly Zaveid settled his hands on his hips to force their bodies closer, so close that now their chests were practically touching, allowing Dezel to feel Zaveid’s desperate heartbeat against his own.

“…you can’t possibly imagine how much I’ve been holding back during all this time. And even if I was planning to wait until you were seventeen, if you say once more that you don’t really want to wait…”, Zaveid leaned forwards until their foreheads were touching, “…I’ll be unable to hold back anymore”

Dezel let out the breath that he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, and then, without any hesitation he leant his face closer to Zaveid until their noses were almost touching while settling his hands over Zaveid’s naked chest, the contact causing the older man to groan low in his throat.

“I don’t want to wait”, Dezel repeated a third time, his voice almost a whisper now, “I’m tired of it”, and then he dared to mimic one of Zaveid’s previous gestures by approaching his mouth to Zaveid’s ear, “I want you”

Dezel felt Zaveid’s hands on his hip increment their grip, and after some seconds that looked like hours Zaveid let out a long deep breath and forced Dezel’s to leave his ear to be face to face again, and the younger Wind Seraph could feel all his body shivering with a mix nervousness and satisfaction when experimenting for the first time Zaveid’s lustful gaze fixed on him.

Then, slowly, Zaveid raised one of his hands to grab Dezel’s chin, forcing him to raise his face towards him the same way he had done before to give him his first kiss, although this time Dezel immediately knew that the kiss that he was about to receive definitely wasn’t going to be like the first one.

 “Okay, Dezel-chan…”, Zaveid leaned over him until their lips were slightly brushing, the extremely feathery contact mixed with Zaveid’s aroused deep voice causing Dezel’s breath to hitch with anticipation, “remember that you’ve asked for it”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> …….Okay, I said that the rating was going to change but I didn’t say anything about smut :P However, I promise that in the next chapter they will finally have their first time, and I’ll make sure to make a long scene in compensation for the ones who were expecting that to happen in this chapter :)
> 
> Again, sorry if such a long chapter has bored you -.- But I think that it was necessary to show the evolution of Dezel’s feelings for Zaveid. Also, I had never hesitated so much while writing a chapter before. In fact, at first when creating Katie (the Original Female Character) I had initially described her like an idiot but then I thought that Zaveid wouldn’t ever date someone like that, so I had to change a lot of things in the chapter ^^U I hope that the final result had been more or less decent.
> 
> As always, thanks a lot to the ones who comments and leave kudos and don’t hesitate in leaving what you think about the story! ^^
> 
> Note: I’ll try to update ASAP but since I start exams this week and I have to keep doing my part-time job, maybe it takes me a little (three weeks or so)


	8. Past Arc – Part 3: First night together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ll just say one thing: the rating of the fic has changed to Explicit ;)

Dezel thought that he was prepared to experiment what it meant to be kissed by Zaveid _properly_. After all, he had been imagining non-stop how it was going to be. Indeed, a tiny part of him was ready to discover that maybe his first ‘real’ kiss was not going to be as amazing as he had thought.

But now, while pinned against one of the columns that sustained the tightrope and while feeling Zaveid’s tongue inspecting his mouth with vigor, he realized that he had worried for nothing. Zaveid’s way of kissing was better, _way better_ , than he had ever dreamt, to the point that Dezel could feel his body already burning, his legs trembling slightly and his stomach tightening with every expert roll of Zaveid’s wet muscle. Damn, he seriously hoped to last because he could feel himself already getting hard…

At that moment, Dezel moaned when Zaveid’s tongue hit a particular sensitive place inside his cavity, the soft whimper that had just escaped from his lips causing Zaveid to increase the grip of his hands on Dezel’s hips, and the younger Wind Seraph was surprised when suddenly noticing a sudden hardness against his lower half. Well, Dezel thought to himself with relief, at least it was good to know that he was not the only one who was feeling already so excited.

“Damn, Dezel-chan…”, Dezel shivered when Zaveid spoke with a ragged tone against his half-opened lips, “…do you even know what those noises of yours are doing to me?”

Suddenly, Zaveid settled his mouth on the side of his neck and sucked, causing Dezel to exhale a louder moan while digging his fingers on Zaveid’s naked shoulders, all his body shivering because damn, Zaveid was managing to find all the weak spots that he didn’t ever know he had.

“Shit…”, Zaveid breathed against Dezel’s neck, causing tickles on it, before incorporating to look at Dezel, who gulped when seeing the unmistakable desire on Zaveid’s orange eyes, “sorry, Dezel-chan, but even if it’s extremely hot to be making out like this we better change locations if you don’t want to have your first time against this column”

Dezel blushed intensely when the image of Zaveid fucking him senseless against that same pillar appeared on his mind. Oh god. That sounded good, incredibly good, but probably it wasn’t the best way to lose his virginity. After all, thanks to all his talks with Eizen he had learnt that first times were usually quite painful so probably a bed would be a better option.

“But where are we going?”, Dezel asked, “because I think that Eizen has gone to sleep already so…”

“In that case we’ll wake him up kick him out”

Dezel’s eyes opened wide when Zaveid answered without hesitation.

“I think that’s the first time that you’ve suggested to wake Eizen up”, Dezel said with an honest impressed tone that caused Zaveid to chuckle.

“Well, until now I had nothing that was worth it enough to risk my well-being when waking up the ‘Blond-Sleeping Beast”

Dezel couldn’t help to laugh when hearing Zaveid calling Eizen that, but when Zaveid leaned forward and kissed him again his laugh was completely replaced by a satisfied sigh. Damn it, he could get easily addicted to Zaveid’s kisses.

“But now, I have urgent matters to attend with you in that caravan so not even a scary Eizen can stop me”

Dezel laughed again when hearing Zaveid’s purposely overconfident tone before being the one in leaning forward to kiss Zaveid, and even if his way of kissing was nothing compared to Zaveid’s one he was proud when feeling the older man’s breathing hitch lightly.

“Then let’s go, Zaveid ‘the Ladykiller’”, Dezel said, daring to use a teasing tone, “I want to know if you live up to your reputation or your alias is just for show”

And oh damn, when Zaveid slowly smirked after hearing those words Dezel could feel his heart skip a beat, because damn if the mix of Zaveid’s sparkling eyes with that predatory smile was not the sexiest expression that he had seen in Zaveid’s face until now.

“Oh, don’t worry Dezel-chan…”, Zaveid settled his mouth over Dezel’s ear, causing the Wind Seraph to hold his breath against his will, “…I’ll do my best to meet your expectations”

 _You’ve already done it_ , Dezel managed to think to himself before his mouth was captured in an even more passionate kiss than before. Damn, he seriously was sorry for Eizen but like hell if they weren’t going to that caravan right then.

However, when they reached their caravan (in less than two minutes) they found it empty, with a single note stuck on its door.

 

_I’m sleeping in Lafarga’s caravan tonight. Feel free to check the first drawer of my wardrobe if there is something you need. Have a good night ;)_

_Eizen_

_\---_

_Jeez IT WAS TIME ALREADY! :D But please, try not to be very noisy, we want to sleep :P_

_Rose_

\---

_I hope you don’t dare to break up after all the time that has taken you to be together, baaakas -.-‘’_

_Edna_

\---

_I’m so happy for you two!! Especially for Zaveid, it was time that he finally settled down <3 ^^_

_Lailah_

_\---_

_Congratulations. Something tells me that you are fated to be together :)_

_Lafarga_

 

The both Wind Seraphs stared with dumbfounded expressions the note during some seconds before Zaveid finally spoke.

“Dezel-chan…just out of curiosity, did you close the tent flap when entering the big top?”

“…I don’t think so”

After a moment of silence, Dezel exhaled such a long resigned sigh that Zaveid began to laugh.

“Damn, this is so embarrassing…”, Dezel said covering his eyes.

“Why?”, Zaveid said between laughs, “they were going to know it anyway so like this we won’t have to lose time telling them”

“Yeah, you’re right, it’s way better that everyone had caught us making out”, Dezel said with sarcasm.

“It’s your fault for not closing the flap”, Zaveid accused, and when seeing the way Dezel ‘glared’ at him he laughed again before kissing the younger Wind Seraph, who immediately returned the kiss. Damn, he better learn not to be so weak to that extremely obvious way to shut him up.

After that, Dezel finally entered the caravan followed by Zaveid, and when the door closed behind them with a soft click, he felt for a moment a little awkward, not knowing very well how to react next. After all he had never slept with someone so he didn’t know if there was some kind of protocol to follow, like talking a little before getting on with it or something like that.

However, just when he was going to speak in an attempt to hide his nervousness Zaveid surprised him by enclosing his arms around his waist from behind, the words that Dezel was going to say turning into a whimper when Zaveid began to place soft kisses along the side of his neck, the extremely feathery contact causing tickles on his sensitive skin. Okay, it seemed that talking to break the ice wasn’t necessary at all.

“You have too many clothes on, Dezel-chan”, Zaveid whispered just in his ear before grabbing his earlobe between his teeth softly, that single gesture forcing another whine from Dezel.

Taking Dezel’s silence as an indication to proceed, Zaveid began to lift his t-shirt up to gradually expose Dezel’s upper body but he stopped when the t-shirt reached his chest, as if he was asking Dezel permission to continue, and the younger Wind Seraph didn’t think it twice. He immediately complied, raising his arms in order to help Zaveid remove the clothing.

When the t-shirt was discarded on the floor, Zaveid made Dezel turn around to be facing him. He settled his arms around Dezel’s waist again to force their bodies closer until their naked chests were touching. Dezel couldn’t help to let out a sigh of satisfaction because of the warm contact, causing Zaveid to smile before capturing his lips in an intense kiss that made Dezel’s stomach tighten, his hands flying to grab Zaveid’s back with possessiveness, enjoying the contact of those hard but at the same time soft muscles.

Without stopping the kiss, which was becoming wilder and wilder with every second, Zaveid walked them towards the middle bed until the back of Dezel’s knees touched the edge. When that happened, Zaveid’s hands traveled down from Dezel’s lower back until grabbing the back of Dezel’s thighs in order to lift him up just the necessary to make him fall onto the bed with a soft ‘bump’.

Dezel didn’t have time to be surprised for the sudden change of position because Zaveid immediately crawled over him and attacked his mouth again passionately, taking the breath away from the younger Wind Seraph, who could just surrender to the extremely good sensation of Zaveid’s warm tongue ravaging the interior of his mouth again.

“Hey, Dezel-chan…”, Dezel was seriously impressed when Zaveid spoke with a tone almost completely normal when he was still trying to recover his breathing, “…are you really sure about this?”

Dezel frowned when detecting some hesitation on Zaveid’s eyes.

“What do you mean?”

Zaveid cleared his throat and Dezel was surprised when the older Wind Seraph spoke a little hesitantly.

“Well, I just want to be sure that you are not forcing yourself in any way. Because even I’ve said before that I’ve been holding back during these two years, I don’t mind to wait more if that’s what you need, so if at some point you don’t feel like continuing or you want to stop you just have to say i…”

Dezel grabbed Zaveid’s face between his hands and kissed him hard, causing the older man to exhale a surprised but satisfied grunt, and then to put more emphasis in his answer Dezel purposely moved his hips up in order to make their respective lower halves connect a little rudely, forcing another grunt out from Zaveid’s mouth.

“I’ve told you _three_ times already that I don’t want to wait”, Dezel practically snarled against Zaveid’s mouth, “I want this”, Dezel moved his hips up again, the action causing Zaveid to bite his bottom lip probably in order to prevent another groan from escaping, “so stop worrying already or I’ll think that it’s _you_ the one who wants to wait…”

Zaveid chuckled when Dezel half-closed his eyes with a purposely suspicious expression.

“Okay, I get it Dezel-chan”, Zaveid smiled and kissed Dezel again this time more calmly, “I won’t insist anymore. But since you’re way younger than me yet I needed to be sure that I wasn’t taking advantage of you”

Dezel rolled his eyes.

“First, you are just six years older, so I’m not _‘way younger_ ’ than you, I’m just ‘younger’. And second, if I wasn’t okay with this, I wouldn’t be letting you do all this to me”

Zaveid raised a suggestive eyebrow and smirked, causing Dezel’s heart to skip a bit because that expression was surely hot.

“‘ _Doing all this to you_ ’?”, Zaveid’s tone sounded amused. Incredibly amused, “Dezel-chan…”, Dezel’s breath hitched when Zaveid began to talk just in his ear with a lower tone than usual, “I haven’t even started…”

Zaveid ended the sentence biting softly Dezel’s earlobe, causing this one to settle his hands again on the older man’s lower back since he had the feeling that soon he was going to feel the need to get a hold onto something.

Meanwhile, Zaveid’s mouth had stopped teasing his ear and had traveled down by Dezel’s jaw, stopping below his chin briefly to give a playful lick that made Dezel shiver.

“You’re extremely sensitive…”, Zaveid commented with a satisfied tone.

He kept going down even more until reaching Dezel’s neck, stopping over his accelerated pulse to deposit a gentle open-mouthed kiss followed by a not-as-gentle suck that caused Dezel to exhale a whimper that turned into a full moan when Zaveid added his tongue to his assault on that weak spot.

One of Dezel’s hands flied to grab Zaveid by the back of his neck, his other hand keeping grabbing Zaveid’s lower back with such force that for a moment he was afraid of leaving marks, but what the hell, Zaveid was surely marking him with the way he was ‘torturing’ his neck so he had the right to do so as well.

In fact, he was so focused in trying to suppress the moans produced for every movement of Zaveid’s merciless tongue that he didn’t notice the way Zaveid’s hands had begun to travel up by the side of his body. Although what he _did_ notice was when Zaveid placed his thumbs just over his nipples to initiate a slow rotating movement.

“ _Ah_ …!”

Dezel arched his body, unconsciously demanding more contact, and it seemed that his honest - and, according to Dezel, a little embarrassing - reaction pleased Zaveid because Dezel could feel the older man’s smile against his already abused neck.

“You like that?”

Zaveid’s rhetorical question spelled in such a sensual voice placed a blush on Dezel’s cheeks, who immediately forced Zaveid’s mouth on his own again in order to try to hide his embarrassment.

Zaveid returned the rather sloppy but enthusiastic kiss with vigor while beginning to rotate his fingers over Dezel’s chest with more force, but when seeing that Dezel kept unconsciously pressing his body against his fingers he stopped the kiss to enclose his mouth around one of Dezel’s already hardened nipples.

Dezel exhaled a needy moan when Zaveid began to lap at the little bud, using his teeth to apply a little more pressure and increment the already good sensation. Damn, he couldn’t believe that he was feeling so good just for having his chest caressed. After all, he had played with his own nipples before after reading that some guys felt good by doing that and he had never felt anything in particular. But god, Zaveid seemed to have quite a talent in making him feel good with everything he did because now he could feel his own member twitching inside his more and more uncomfortable pants.

Some moments later, Zaveid left his nipple with a last lick, and Dezel was in part grateful because now he would be able to pull himself together. Or at least that’s what he thought until seeing Zaveid settle his hands over his pants with the clear intention of removing them.

“Wait…”, Dezel said hurriedly, causing Zaveid to immediately stop his actions, “…are we going to do it already?”

Zaveid raised his eyebrows surprised before smiling with amusement.

“Well, I had a couple of things planned before doing it _buuut_ if you can’t possibly wait anymore to discover how it is to sleep with a Sex God like me, I can leave them for other occasion”

Dezel couldn’t help to laugh when hearing Zaveid purposely boasting tone.

“You better be as good as you’re claiming to be”, he said with a teasing tone, causing Zaveid to chuckle while leaning down to kiss Dezel.

“You’ll discover it soon”, Zaveid whispered with a purposely seductive voice that caused Dezel to shiver against his will, “…but before that…”, Zaveid settled his hands over Dezel’s pants again and without breaking eye contact he began to lower the zip, causing Dezel’s breath to hitch, “…let’s enjoy the foreplay a little more. The night is long after all”

Dezel shivered because of all the promises that Zaveid’s last sentence carried and nodded shakily, causing Zaveid to smile widely before finishing removing Dezel’s pants, leaving just his underwear on.

“Don’t you remove yours?”, Dezel asked when seeing that Zaveid planned to keep removing his clothes, because he really wanted to see Zaveid naked but like hell if he was going to say that aloud…

“Oh...”, Zaveid raised an amused eyebrow and began to remove his belt, that action causing Dezel to gulp remembering the effect that that same sight had caused on him some hours ago, “I’m glad to see that I’m not the only pervert who is dying to see the other one naked…”

Despite Zaveid’s obvious teasing tone, Dezel couldn’t help to blush. Damn, even if what Zaveid had said was completely true he couldn’t help to feel a little embarrassed for it.

“I-I’m not a pervert!”, Dezel snapped, “it’s perfectly normal to want to see my boyfriend naked”

The chuckle that Dezel was expecting as an answer didn’t come. In fact, after hearing his words Zaveid had got completely still, his eyes opened at his maximum.

Dezel gulped. Damn, had he just said something wrong…?

“Dezel-chan, can you repeat that?”

Dezel was surprised when hearing Zaveid’s request, and the fact that Zaveid’s eyes were looking at him with even more intensity than before wasn’t helping to dissipate his recent nervousness.

“That I’m not a pervert?”

At that moment Zaveid finished removing his own pants with a fluid movement, and Dezel had to suppress a gulp when seeing the black boxers that Zaveid was wearing and that left absolutely nothing to the imagination, since he could perfectly see the contour of Zaveid’s member pressing against the tight clothing.

“No, Dezel-chan…”

Zaveid hovered over Dezel again with a look on his face that could just be defined as ‘predatory’. He leant his forearms on either side Dezel’s head to pin him down on the bed, the sudden contact of their half awakened members causing Dezel’s heart beat hysterically.

“The second part. What have you called me?”

And then Dezel understood, smiling despite his nervousness because he had the feeling that Zaveid’s reaction to his answer was going to be especially satisfying

“Oh…”, Dezel dared to borrow some of Zaveid’s teasing habits and spoke with a casual tone, flexing and opening his legs so Zaveid could be comfortably between them, the action making their members rub again slightly and causing them both to exhale a sigh, “do you mean when I’ve called you…”, Dezel incorporated a little and settled his mouth in Zaveid’s ear to whisper the last word of his sentence, “… _boyfriend_?”

Dezel smiled satisfied when Zaveid let out a long breath, and when he leant his head on the bed again the obvious suppressed desire that was adorning Zaveid’s face forced him to bite back a moan.

“ _Damn_ , Dezel…”

Dezel hadn’t had time to feel happy for being called by his given name because at that moment Zaveid leaned down and sucked at his neck with force, causing him to moan loudly because even if he was expecting a similar reaction he wasn’t as prepared as he thought when feeling such a wave of pleasure hitting him. 

“I like how that sounds…”, Zaveid exhaled against Dezel’s neck before attacking another weak spot, “…damn, I _really_ like it”

Dezel moaned again when suddenly Zaveid began to move his hips against his, initiating a wild grinding movement between their bodies that caused Dezel to practically dig his nails on Zaveid’s sculpted back.

“Zaveid… _ah_ …!”

Dezel began to move against Zaveid’s as well, desperately searching for more contact. God, the feeling of their clothed member rubbing together with such a fast pace was incredibly good, and the mere thought of Zaveid moving exactly like that inside him caused Dezel to be even more aroused if possible. 

 “Dezel-chan…”, Zaveid grunted and kissed Dezel hungrily before suddenly stopping his movements, leaving Dezel wanting and panting heavily, “do you know what a blowjob is?”

Dezel felt his heart about to leave his chest when hearing that word coming from Zaveid’s mouth. Damn, how many times had he dreamt about that…?

“Dezel-chan…?”

“Y-yeah, I know what it is”, Zaveid raised an amused questioning eyebrow that caused Dezel to half-close his eyes, “what? Maybe I haven’t so much sex experience like you but that doesn’t mean that I know _nothing_ about sexual stuff”

“Okay, okay, don’t be angry”, Zaveid said with a chuckle kissing Dezel conciliatorily, but the next time he spoke his voice had a hint of seduction on it, “so…would you like me to give you one?”

Dezel gulped but it didn’t take him much to nod. There was no point in pretending that he hadn’t been fantasying about that. And not just about _receiving_ it. Although he wasn’t sure if he would be able to do it properly so maybe it was better to wait until the next time to…

At that moment Dezel’s thoughts left his brain when Zaveid traveled down until his face was just over his crotch, and when the man nudged playfully with his nose the bulge that had formed on Dezel’s underwear the younger Wind Seraph exhaled a strangled gasp.

“O-Oi, don’t do that!”, Dezel exclaimed, causing Zaveid to chuckle.

“Okay, sorry, I’ll leave the teasing for another occasion”

Zaveid began to lower Dezel’s underwear to expose Dezel’s member, and even if it was not the first time that Zaveid saw him naked, this time Dezel couldn’t help to feel more exposed than usual.

“Well, Dezel-chan, please, I beg you to be indulgent with me”, Zaveid said with a wink while reaching back to push his long hair in a low pony tail, “after all it’s my first time doing this”

Dezel hadn’t time to feel happy for the knowledge of being Zaveid’s first because without giving him time to be mentally prepared Zaveid’s warm mouth engulfed his member, making him exhale the loudest moan of the night.

“ _Shit_ …”, Dezel whined, his fingers digging on the mattress when Zaveid began to move his head up and down with a pretty confident rhythm. 

“Dezel-chan, don’t curse or I’ll have to tell Lailah-chan…”

Zaveid’s teasing comment made Dezel exhale a labored laugh. He tried to reply something but at that moment Zaveid used his tongue to give a long lick from base to tip before swallowing his member again, effectively stopping Dezel’s attempt of reply.

Dezel bit his bottom lip in order to lower the volume of his moans and forced himself not to close his eyes. After all, he didn’t want to miss a single detail of the extremely dirty but erotic sight of his member disappearing almost completely into Zaveid’s mouth. Damn, his imagination surely sucked because he was feeling way _way_ better than he had initially anticipated.

“Zaveid… _ngh_ …oh god…”

Unconsciously, Dezel began to move his hips against Zaveid’s mouth, trying to reach deeper into that awesome warm cavity, and although Zaveid settled his hands over his hips in order to prevent too rude movements that could make him gag he let Dezel do as he pleased.

In fact, Zaveid helped Dezel move up against his mouth, letting the younger Wind Seraph settle the rhythm that he wanted, that ended being rather fast, almost rough, to the point that at the end Dezel was practically slamming into Zaveid’s mouth, although the older Wind Seraph didn’t seem to mind at all. On the contrary, for the way he was groaning around Dezel’s member every time that the younger Wind Seraph thrust inside him, it was evident that he was enjoying it as well.

However, to Dezel’s frustration, it didn’t pass much time until he began to feel in the pit of his stomach a familiar warm that definitely didn’t want to feel yet.

“Z-Zaveid…”, Dezel settled his hand over the older man’s head, “…Zaveid, wait, I’m about to…”

“Yeah, I can feel it”, Zaveid said giving a last lick just around Dezel’s tip to remove the nice quantity of precum that had formed there, the action making Dezel shiver again, “but are you sure that you don’t want to finish like this? You seem to be enjoying it quite a lot…”

For a moment Dezel was tempted to agree to Zaveid’s proposition but at the end he shook his head languidly, still a little dazed for all the pleasure received.  

“No, I prefer to come with you inside me”

Dezel didn’t know who was more surprised, if him or Zaveid when those words escaped his mouth in a completely natural way.

“Wow, Dezel-chan, it seems that doing naughty things makes you be more blunt than usual…”

“ _Shut up_!”, Dezel exclaimed bright red covering his own eyes with his hands in embarrassment and causing Zaveid to burst out laughing.

“Hey, that’s not bad at all”, Zaveid said with a smile, crawling over Dezel again to deposit a soft kiss over his forehead, “by saying that you’ve managed to arouse me even more”

Dezel removed his hands from his eyes to discover that Zaveid wasn’t lying. Now the tent in his black boxers was more evident than before, and all his previous doubts about being able to do what Zaveid had just done to him vanished.

“Okay, Dezel-chan…”, Zaveid commented, removing his pony tail while incorporating again until being in a kneeled position, and since he was looking towards Eizen’s wardrobe he missed the way Dezel licked his own lips while staring at his member, “what about checking the perverted things that our blond friend is keeping ther…?”

Zaveid stopped talking when Dezel incorporated to a sitting position and settled his hands over the waistband of his boxers.

“Wow, wait there, Dezel-chan”, Zaveid said with an amused smile settling his hands over Dezel’s ones, stopping his attempt of lowering the clothing, “I don’t know if you know this but before doing anything we have to prepare you so…”

“I want to give you a blowjob too”

Dezel could perfectly see Zaveid’s member twitching, and when looking up at Zaveid this one was holding his breath.

“You sure?”, Zaveid said with an uncertain tone that caused Dezel to frown at him, “you don’t have to do this if you don’t feel like…”

Zaveid’s sentence ended with a groan when Dezel grabbed his member through the clothing and began to rub it.

“Yeah, I know that ‘ _I don’t have to’_ ”, Dezel replied, his tone a little sarcastic despite the blush that was adorning his cheeks because damn if feeling Zaveid bucking his hips against his hand wasn’t incredibly arousing, “I’ve already told you that I’m not forcing me, how many times I have to repeat that I WANT to do this?”

Zaveid smiled with certain relief before taking the hand that Dezel was using to stroke him and depositing a soft kiss on its knuckles, the unexpected intimate action making Dezel’s irritation go away immediately.

“Alright, Dezel. From now on, I promise that I’ll stop doubting your decisions”, Zaveid smiled apologetically, “sorry, sometimes my old big brother habits unintentionally show up”

Dezel snorted and made Zaveid bend down a little to kiss him.

“You better not tease Lailah about being a worrywart because you’re exactly the same”

Zaveid chuckled and kissed Dezel back before incorporating again. 

“How bad. I thought that I had managed to hide that fact rather well”

Dezel was about to reply teasingly that he had always been incredibly obvious about that but at that moment Zaveid lowered his boxers to slowly expose his member, that action causing Dezel to gulp because of how much sexiness it carried.

“So? Do you like my hidden tattoos?”, Zaveid asked with a playful tone, signaling the white lines of his left hip that kept going down surrounding his thigh and that finished on his member with a symbol that was really similar to the one who appeared on his left arm, “what do you think this represents?”

“Well…it looks like a snake”, Dezel said hesitantly, causing Zaveid to laugh.

“Yep, bingo! Sylph, the God of the Wind, is usually represented as a winged snake”

“And you couldn’t get the rest of your leg tattooed instead of your dick?”

“Weeell, maybe, but think about it: now I can call my dick the ‘Wind Serpent’ and nobody will be able to tell that it’s a lie”

Dezel rolled his eyes exaggeratedly, making Zaveid laugh again.

“I’m going to pretend that I’ve not heard that”, Dezel said before carefully touching the tattoo on Zaveid’s member, the simple action causing the older Wind Seraph to sigh, “does it still hurt?”

Dezel couldn’t help to ask with certain concern but Zaveid shook his head reassuringly.

“Nah, it’s just a little more sensitive than usual”, Zaveid smirked, “thing that’s extremely good because that means that I’m going to feel everything you do to me with more intensity…”

Dezel gulped nervously. Damn, that was good and bad at the same time because that meant that in case of screwing up, Zaveid was going to feel it more as well, so he better give his best.

After that, they changed position so Zaveid was sitting on the bed with his back leaning against the wall (since the bed didn’t have a headboard) and Dezel between his legs.

“Okay, Dezel-chan”, Zaveid crossed his hands behind his head and leant against the wall, smiling seductively, “I’m all yours”

Dezel took a deep breath, trying to gather the calm that Zaveid was showing right then without much success, and after securing the base of Zaveid’s member with one hand he immediately tried to take him into his mouth.

However, Dezel stopped startled when Zaveid hissed in something that clearly wasn’t pleasure.

“Sorry!”, Dezel exclaimed immediately in such a panic that Zaveid chuckled.

“Hey, calm down”, Zaveid liberated one of his hands to stroke Dezel’s hair affectionately, the action calming him immediately, “Just be careful with the teeth, okay?”

Dezel gulped and nodded. Okay, teeth were bad. In that case, he would use just his tongue at first. After all, when stroking himself with lube the added wet sensation felt rather good, especially when applying it around the tip where everything was more sensitive, so he would begin with that.

After taking a deep breath, he leaned down again and tentatively gave a small lick just on the tip. This time Zaveid didn’t hiss, he just sighed softly, so taking that as an indication to continue Dezel decided to repeat the action, initiating a languid rotating movement with his tongue around Zaveid’s shaft.

This time Zaveid sighed slightly louder, the grip on Dezel’s hair incremented, so this time Dezel looked up to find Zaveid looking back at him, and although his expression had barely changed his muscular chest was moving up and down with a more uneven rhythm.

“You can do it harder”

Zaveid’s raspier tone indicated Dezel that his ministrations were beginning to affect the older Wind Seraph, so with renewed confidence Dezel resumed his task and followed Zaveid’s suggestion by pressing his tongue with more firmness just over the slit before swirling it a little, obtaining a new grunt from the Wind Seraph above him.

“Yeah, that’s it…”, Zaveid practically purred, “oh _yeah_ , that pressure is perfect…”

Dezel blushed intensely while looking up again to see that Zaveid had let fall his head a little backwards while closing his eyes, getting lost on the sensation of Dezel’s inexpert but eager tongue caressing his member.

However, even if seeing Zaveid with such a relaxed and satisfied expression was incredibly arousing, if the man could keep talking that meant that he wasn’t doing it right enough. He wanted to make Zaveid unable to speak, the same way that Zaveid had managed to do that to him just a moment ago, so after giving another couple of licks around Zaveid’s member Dezel finally enclosed his mouth around the tip making sure to cover his teeth with his lips not to hurt Zaveid and gave a rather hard suck, the unexpected action making the older Wind Seraph let out a surprised gasp while opening his eyes again.

“Damn, Dezel-chan”, Zaveid looked at Dezel again with light reproach, “warn me before doing something like that or…”

Zaveid’s protest turned into a grunt when, without warning him again, Dezel began to slowly swallow his member.

“Oi, careful”, Zaveid’s said hurriedly when seeing that Dezel kept lowering down without stopping, “don’t go down too much if you don’t want to throw u…”

Dezel ignored the warning. He just kept engulfing Zaveid’s member until being practically deepthroating Zaveid, and he was surprised when the older Wind Seraph almost cried, the hand that was over Dezel’s incrementing momentarily the grip and the other flying to grab the sheets under them.

“Fuck!”, Zaveid exclaimed with a mix of surprise and pleasure before fixing his eyes on Dezel’s in disbelief, “Dezel-chan, don’t tell me that you don’t have a gag reflex…”, when seeing Dezel frown with confusion Zaveid spoke again, “try to gulp now”

Still not understanding, Dezel did as Zaveid said even if gulping when having something so large inside his mouth wasn’t an easy task, but he managed to do it without feeling any desire to throw up as Zaveid had feared. And doing that was totally worth it because this time Zaveid _did_ moan while his entire body suffered a powerful shudder, his knuckles turning white because of the force he was using to grab the sheets of the bed.

“ _Fuck_ …holy _fuck_ , _soo_ good…”

Zaveid’s eyes had closed shut again and his mouth was agape, a thin line of sweat adorning his forehead, and even if at first glance that expression could be similar to one of pain Dezel knew that it was just the contrary, and not just for the curses that Zaveid was shamelessly letting out. The way Zaveid’s cock was pulsing inside his mouth and the way Zaveid’s hand was unconsciously pressing his head down were also telling the younger Wind Seraph that Zaveid was definitely enjoying it, and that he wanted more, so he immediately complied by beginning to bob his head up and down.

Dezel settled a rather slow rhythm because he feared that adopting a faster one would probably make him use his teeth again involuntarily, and he didn’t want to ruin everything by hurting Zaveid. So, in order to compensate, Dezel made sure to swallow every single time that he reached the base of Zaveid’s member.

At first, he was afraid of Zaveid getting bored for such a steady pace. After all, when Zaveid had sucked him off, the pace that he had adopted had been rather fast and damn if that hadn’t felt good, so maybe Zaveid liked better that way.

However, when seeing Zaveid grunting and shuddering every time that his member practically hit the back Dezel’s throat, the younger Wind Seraph deduced that probably a faster pace wasn’t necessary.  Zaveid looked pretty close to come undone already even with the extremely calm pace, and damn if that wasn’t a satisfying feeling.

“Ngh… _Dezel_ …”

Dezel shuddered when Zaveid spelled his given name with such a breathless tone, but just he was about to go down again Zaveid stopped him from doing so by using his hand to push Dezel’s head back, making him release his member with a soft ‘pop’.

Dezel was about to protest but he hadn’t time to do so because suddenly he was with his back against the bed again. He had time to get a glimpse of Zaveid’s aroused expression before his mouth was assaulted roughly, what caused Dezel to moan in delight while trying to return the kiss with at least half of the passion that Zaveid was using on him.

“Damn, Dezel-chan…”, Zaveid said when the mind-blowing kiss finally ended, “you’ve been about to make me finish just now. If I didn’t know you so well I would seriously suspect that this wasn’t your first blowjob”

Dezel was about to smile proudly when hearing Zaveid’s impressed tone but then, even if he knew it was stupid to feel that way, he couldn’t help to feel jealous when knowing that it was probably not the first time that Zaveid received oral. And damn, knowing that someone before him had seen him put that kind of expressions frustrated him.

“Bah, I guess that it’s not the best that you have received”

Dezel tried to use a joking tone while speaking but he failed because some of his uneasiness slipped, so he averted his eyes not wanting to see an answer that surely was going to hurt on Zaveid’s face.

However, Zaveid just chuckled and grabbed his chin to force him look at him again, and Dezel gulped when seeing clearly the love on Zaveid’s expression.

“Dezel, did you remember what Lailah-chan said when giving Rose-chan and you your first sex talk? About just having sex with the person you truly love?”

Dezel gulped and nodded. Damn, Zaveid using his name like that meant that he was deathly serious.

“Well, at that moment I didn’t think that way. I thought that as long as your body asked for it, sex would feel good, and that love and sex were two completely different things. But after falling in love with you, and after feeling what it was to love someone like I had never done before, I discovered that Lailah was completely right…”, Zaveid grabbed one of Dezel’s hands and settled it over his own chest, and the younger Wind Seraph opened his eyes in astonishment when feeling Zaveid’s hysterical heartbeat, “…because even if I’ve been with women before, and even if the time that I spent with them was rather good, no one has been able to make me feel as damn well as I’m feeling right now. _Never_. And I don’t have the slightest doubt that sex with you is going to be the best damn thing that I’ve ever experienced”, Zaveid smiled and leaned down to kiss Dezel softly, “And I just hope to be good enough to make you feel the same way”

Dezel let out a deep breath and tried to say something back, but he discovered that he wasn’t able. Not without crying with relief and happiness. So he simply incorporated a little to enclose his arms around Zaveid’s neck and kissed him back with force, hoping that that action was enough to show Zaveid how damn much those words had meant to him, and for the way Zaveid smiled during the kiss he knew that somehow he had understood perfectly his feelings.

“So…should we check what is Eizen hiding inside his wardrobe?”, Zaveid asked when the kiss stopped, his smile slowly turning into a smirk, “maybe we discover some kinky stuff that we can use against him”

Dezel laughed when hearing Zaveid’s expectant tone.

“If he is allowing us to check it I don’t think that he had left any compromising proof behind”, Dezel commented.

“Well, we’ll see soon”

Zaveid kissed Dezel briefly before going toward the wardrobe.

“You were right, there’s nothing very interesting”, Zaveid said with a disappointed tone some seconds later, “the only interesting thing inside here is a couple of handcuffs”

Dezel frowned surprised.

“I don’t imagine Lailah being handcuffed by Eizen”

Zaveid chuckled while approaching the bed again with a bottle of lube in one hand and some tissues on the other.

“And who says that Lailah-chan is the one being handcuffed”

Dezel blinked a couple of times.

“Good point”, he simply said, making Zaveid chuckle while climbing over the bed again.

“Okay, Dezel…”, Zaveid’s expression turned apologetic, “I’m afraid that the preparation may hurt a little but I promise that I’ll be incredibly gentle so…”

Zaveid opened his eyes with surprise when Dezel let out a chuckle.

“Don’t worry. I know how the preparation goes”

When seeing the way Zaveid frowned in confusion Dezel knew that he had to explain himself better, so he continued talking, unable to prevent a light blush from reaching his cheeks.

“I…umh…I’ve done it myself sometimes”, _a lot of times_ , “so I think that it’s not going to hurt me as much as it should”, _I know that it’s not going to hurt me at all_.

Zaveid remained silent after Dezel spoke, simply staring at him, who was getting more and more uncomfortable, and when after some seconds Dezel was about to speak to break the sudden tension that had settled between them, Zaveid suddenly leant over him and slowly, incredibly slowly and without averting his eyes from Dezel at any moment, he removed completely the underpants that the younger Wind Seraph’s still wore.

Then, after leaving Dezel lying on the bed completely naked, Zaveid approached his mouth to Dezel’s ear and pronounced two simple words. Spelled with such want that Dezel’s entire body shivered with a mix of nervousness and excitation.

“Show me”

Zaveid adopted again a kneeled position and sat back on his heels, expectant, his orange eyes shining with such lust that Dezel felt his heart become crazy inside his chest. It was strange. That same afternoon the mere thought of Zaveid discovering him while pleasuring himself had scared him to death, but now he could feel his own member hardening again just for being under the powerful gaze of the older Winder Seraph. Things had surely changed.

After exhaling a deep breath, Dezel incorporated into a sitting position and leaned against the wall. He flexed his legs over the mattress and spread them, the vulnerable and exposed position causing him to blush but he didn’t regret not having choosing a less compromising one because the way that Zaveid had gulped loudly when seeing him opening his legs like that had made him feel incredible satisfied.

After that, Dezel took with slightly shaking hands the bottle of lube, and after pouring a rather nice quantity on his right hand he reached down to introduce not one but two coated fingers inside him, since he was feeling much less tight than usual thanks to his own ministrations of that afternoon.

“Damn…”

Dezel, who had closed his eyes without realizing, opened them again when hearing Zaveid curse, and damn the way Zaveid was shamelessly staring his digits going in and out made Dezel embarrassed and excited at the same time, to the point that he could easily add his third finger at that moment without feeling any discomfort. In fact, he couldn’t help to exhale a satisfied whine because of the sensation of fullness that invaded him…

However, he couldn’t enjoy that feeling much longer because at that moment Zaveid grabbed his wrist, stopping the movements of his hand.

“What’s wron…?”, Dezel’s attempt of question ended with a moan when Zaveid kissed him hard, sneaking his tongue inside his mouth to explore his cavity with abandon.

“That’s enough”, Zaveid’s voice sounded so erotically ragged that Dezel felt his member twitching against his stomach, “You’re more than prepared”

Dezel gulped when Zaveid removed at last his boxers and situated between his parted legs before taking the bottle of lube to coat generously his member, a sudden nervousness invading the younger Wind Seraph because finally, after almost two years of frustrating wait, Zaveid and him were going to sleep together, and even if he couldn’t feel happier about it he couldn’t help to feel certain apprehension to discover that maybe he was expecting too much and that at the end sex wasn’t as awesome as he had thought, or that even with the preparations he was going to feel a lot of pain and maybe he wasn’t going to enjoy it at all causing Zaveid not to enjoy it either, or…

“Dezel”

At that moment Zaveid said his name with an extremely tender tone while smiling reassuringly at him, and Dezel could feel all his nervousness begin to vanish when Zaveid continued speaking with an extremely confident tone.

“Relax. There’s no need to be worried. Everything is going to be oka…”, Zaveid interrupted himself and shook his head while laughing, “nope, that’s a lie: everything is going to be _incredibly awesome_. In fact…”, Zaveid pressed softly his forehead against Dezel’s one, “… it’s going to be so awesome that you’ll beg me not to stop”

Dezel couldn’t help to chuckle when Zaveid said the last sentence with an obviously exaggerated seductive tone.

“Tsk, idiot”, Dezel snapped with irony before kissing Zaveid with force,

“Yeah, I am, and you love it”, Zaveid winked at him playfully and kissed Dezel back, “by the way, is this position okay or would you prefer another one?”

Dezel shook his head immediately.

“This is fine”, he assured. After all, he didn’t want to miss not even one of the expressions that Zaveid was going to show. But of course, he wasn’t going to say that aloud.

Afte hearing Dezel’s confident answer, Zaveid nodded and grabbed Dezel’s hips to raise them a little so that he could align his member against Dezel’s awaiting entrance, the light pressure causing the younger Wind Seraph to gulp with anticipation.

Finally. It was going to happen.

“I’ll go slow”, Zaveid announced, “and if at some point you want me to stop just say it”

“I thought that you wanted me to beg you _not_ to stop”, Dezel joked a little nervously, causing Zaveid to chuckle.

“Oh, and I want, but right now…”, Zaveid’s tone turned more serious, “…I don’t want you to end hurt for trying to push yourself too hard, so if at some point it’s too painful, please, tell me”

Dezel nodded while settling his hands over Zaveid’s ones.

“I will. I promise”

Zaveid smiled, satisfied with Dezel’s answer, and then he finally began to push inside slowly. Without apparent effort, Zaveid managed to introduce just the tip of his member inside, and Dezel couldn’t help to shudder when seeing the blissful expression that had appeared momentarily in Zaveid’s face before regaining his usual one.

“Keep going”, Dezel urged, and when seeing Zaveid hesitating he continued, “it doesn’t hurt for now so…”, Dezel himself began to push down to welcome more of Zaveid’s member inside, the action causing Zaveid to let out a little grunt, “…keep going”

After hesitating a little more, Zaveid complied and continued pushing until practically being buried inside Dezel, who couldn’t help to exhale a needy moan when feeling so deliciously full.

Damn, he didn’t know if it was because that day he had fingered himself twice or because he had been craving to feel Zaveid inside him for such a long time but at the end instead of the pain that he had to supposedly feel there was just a tiny discomfort, because of course the sensation of having three digits inside was nothing compared to having Zaveid’s entire length.

“God Sylph…”, Zaveid groaned in a low tone before gulping loudly, his hands grabbing Dezel’s hips with almost bruising force, “…god, Dezel, you’re practically swallowing me, it’s amazing”

At any other moment Zaveid’s heated words would have embarrassed him but right then, while feeling himself beginning to slowly fall in a sexual daze, Dezel just felt even more aroused. Besides, seeing Zaveid usual calm expression slightly contorted because of the pleasure and his tattooed chest going up and down with a heavy breathing was an incredible turn on.

“Move”, Dezel exhaled in a demanding tone.

“Already? Are you sure?”, Zaveid asked despite his obvious desire to do as Dezel had requested, and Dezel decided that the best way to prove Zaveid his security was to begin to move against Zaveid back and forward, the sudden movement causing Zaveid to grip Dezel’s hips harder.

“ _Fuck_ …”, Zaveid’s licked his own lips, his eyes fixed intensely on Dezel, who kept moving gradually faster against him wantonly, “damn, Dezel, if you keep moving like that I won’t be able to go easy on you”

Dezel understood immediately that Zaveid was giving him the option of taking things with calm, and he knew that that was the most sensate option. After all, even if right then he was feeling extremely well, it was still his first time and consequently he was going to feel rather sore when everything finished. However, he didn’t care about that. Right then, he just wanted to have the best possible sex with Zaveid. He had been dreaming about that during almost two years and now that the moment had come he was not going to stop even if that meant not to be able to walk the next day. Or in a week.

So, after making sure to fix his eyes on Zaveid with the same intensity the man was using to look at him, Dezel moved again roughly, the action causing Zaveid to exhale a loud groan before showing an extremely sexy predatory smile.

“Very well, Dezel…”

Dezel felt his stomach tightening from anticipation when Zaveid released his hips and made him warp his legs around his waist before leaning down to settle his hands on the bed on either side of Dezel’s body for better leverage.

“If I were you…”, Zaveid approached his face to Dezel until their lips were slightly brushing, “…I would get a hold onto something”

And then, Zaveid began to move, making Dezel lose all his capacity to do anything more than moaning loudly while enjoying the multiple sensations that were assaulting him thanks to Zaveid’s passionate love making: the way Zaveid was pounding into him right now; the way Zaveid’s cock was practically leaving his body before burying in him again to the hilt; the way the bed was crying with every relentless movement of Zaveid’s hips; the way Zaveid was assaulting his neck, his chest, whatever place that his mouth could reach, while whispering his name in a low aroused tone; damn definitely Zaveid hadn’t lied when saying that he wasn’t going to go easy on him.

“ _Ah_ …Z-Zaveid… _yes_!”, Dezel enclosed his arms around Zaveid’s neck and kissed him sloppily and messily, their teeth clashing from time to time since Zaveid wasn’t stopping his rough slams while kissing.

“Dezel…”, Zaveid exhaled against the younger one’s lips while smiling widely, almost frantically, “damn, you don’t know how many times I’ve dreamt to do this to you”

After kissing Dezel one more time passionately, suddenly Zaveid stopped his movements and incorporated into a kneeled position. He grabbed one of Dezel’s legs and lifted it up, making Dezel’s ankle rest on his shoulder.

“Is it too uncomfortable?”, Zaveid asked.

Dezel shook his head but couldn’t help to show a slight confused expression.

“No, I’m fine, but why… _AH_ …!”

Dezel’s hands flied to grab the pillow with force when Zaveid resumed his thrusting because the new position was allowing Zaveid enter him more deeply, increasing all the sensations.

“That’s why”, Zaveid answered with a triumphant tone, “…and do you know what the best about this position is? That if I change a little the angle…”, Zaveid smirked and bended down a little to be able to reach Dezel’s hips again, “…I can easily hit _right here_ ”

Zaveid thrust again, and this time Dezel was pretty sure that all the Windriders camp and all the villages around had been able to hear the loud _cry_ of pleasure that he had exhaled when his prostrate began to be assaulted by Zaveid’s merciless movements.

“Y-yes…oh yes… _ah_ …!”

Dezel released the pillow with one of his hands to settle it over Zaveid’s shoulder, his nails digging on the flesh but for the way Zaveid smirked even wider he didn’t seem to mind.

“Is it good, Dezel?”, he asked with a raspy breathless tone.

“It’s intense… _ngh_ …oh god it’s so intense…!”, Dezel said incoherently. Damn, even if he had reached his sweet spot with his fingers several times the pleasure that he was feeling right now with every brush of Zaveid’s member was incredibly better.

“Then…”, Zaveid asked with a purposely casual tone, “that means that I should stop…?”

“No!”, Dezel immediately shouted, bucking his hips against Zaveid faster, desperate to take him harder, “no…don’t stop…please…don’t stop… _ah_ …!”

Dezel felt Zaveid’s member throbbing inside and when looking at Zaveid through half-lidded eyes he realized that Zaveid was holding his breath.

“God, Dezel-chan, I had said it as joke but _fuck_ you have sounded extremely sexy right now”

Dezel welcomed Zaveid’s wild kiss with his mouth opened, allowing the older Wind Seraph to plunge his tongue inside until practically reach his throat, the hard kiss swallowing the moans that Dezel kept exhaling non-stop when Zaveid incremented even more the already brutal pace.

Damn, he hadn’t been mistaken. His expectations about having sex with Zaveid hadn’t been too high. In fact, they had been extremely low, because not in his wildest dreams he had imagined to be feeling so damn well.

But unfortunately, all the good things eventually come to an end.

“Zaveid…”,  Dezel whispered, unable to prevent some frustration to slip because he really didn’t want everything to finish yet, “I’m…I’m about to…”

Zaveid shut him up with a kiss.

“Same here”, Zaveid replied with a smile while grabbing Dezel’s leaking member to begin to masturbate it with the same pace than his thrusts,  causing the younger Wind Seraph to whine, “should I finish outside or…?”

Dezel shook his head frantically, unable to speak properly now that his orgasm was about to arrive.

“Inside…”, he said between labored breathings, grabbing Zaveid’s ass with his hands to push him against him even more in an attempt to  feel him even deeper, “do it inside…”

Zaveid groaned with arousal before kissing Dezel again, and the passionate kiss together with the stroking of his members and Zaveid’s incessant thrusts made Dezel reach his climax in a few seconds against his own stomach, Zaveid following him almost immediately after, and the younger Wind Seraph knew that he was never going to forget the sight of Zaveid over him with his eyes closed shut in ecstasy, his mouth half-opened, his powerful body shining with sweat, completely breathless but satisfied.

“Wow…”, Zaveid exhaled after both of them recovered their respective breaths, leaning down to deposit a soft kiss on Dezel’s lips before lying next to him, “…Dezel-chan, are you sure that this was your first time? Damn, you almost makes me run out of stamina, it’s been incredible!”

Dezel blushed while laughing a little embarrassed when hearing Zaveid’s impressed tone.

“Yes, I’m pretty sure it is”, Dezel said with an ironic tone that caused Zaveid to chuckle, and the younger Wind Seraph was about to turn to his side to be facing Zaveid but he stopped when feeling a piercing pain on his lower back that caused him to gasp.

“Oi, are you alright?”, Zaveid asked with worry.

“Yeah, more or less”, Dezel said with a lightly strained voice, changing his position with effort, because even if his ass didn’t hurt too much his lower back did hurt quite a lot.

Zaveid sighed and kissed Dezel’s forehead softly.

“Sorry, it’s my fault, if I had held back more…”

Dezel shook his head.

“I’ve asked you not to. And…”, Dezel gulped, all the embarrassment that he hadn’t felt while having sex coming back at full force, “…and it’s been really good”

Zaveid raised an eyebrow.

“Just ‘ _good_ ’?”

Dezel rolled his eyes but he couldn’t help to smile when hearing Zaveid’s slightly offended tone.

“Okay, not just ‘good’. It’s been _incredibly awesome_ ”

Zaveid laughed when Dezel repeated the same words that he had said before.

“That’s better”, Zaveid said with a happy smile before adding with a teasing tone, “after all at the end you’ve really begged me not to stop so that must mean that you’ve really enjoyed it…”

Dezel opened and closed his mouth a couple of times trying to answer but at the end he only averted his eyes while a light blush appeared on his cheeks.

“Shut up”, Dezel said with a sulking tone.

At that moment he hadn’t cared at all about how damn loud he was being but now that his senses were back to normal he could feel embarrassment invading him. Damn, he didn’t want to imagine the faces of the rest of the Windriders the next morning, they were going to mock him for sure…

“Come on, it’s nothing to be embarrassed!”, Zaveid chuckled while kissing him softly on the cheek, “There’s nothing wrong in admitting that you were feeling good.  I don’t have any problem to admit that this has been the best sex that I’ve had in all my life”

Dezel looked back at Zaveid with a skeptic expression.

“Are you telling the truth?”

Zaveid smiled and nodded.

“Absolutely”, Dezel had to suppress an incredibly stupid smile from appearing on his face, but then Zaveid kept talking, his playful expression was back on his face, “and your sexy loud cries have been the best that I’ve ever heard…”

Dezel exhaled a resigned sigh that made Zaveid laughe. If he hadn’t been so tired, he would have hit Zaveid, but since at that moment he couldn’t prevent a yawn he decided to let it pass. Besides, deep inside he liked that Zaveid was so easily affected by him.

“Sleep already”, Dezel simply said with a patient tone, curling against Zaveid who immediately passed and arm over his hip in an unconscious protective way, “or tomorrow I won’t be the only one unable to do the function”

Zaveid chuckled and kissed Dezel’s forehead softly.

 “Okay, but just before you fall asleep on me can I make you a question? And this time I promise that it’s not to tease you, I’m just curious”

Dezel looked at Zaveid a little suspiciously but when seeing that Zaveid was serious (or at least more serious than usual) he nodded, giving Zaveid permission to ask.

“Where did you learn about preparation? Did you read it somewhere or…?”

Dezel blushed again. He should have supposed that Zaveid would ask about that.

“No, it was Eizen who taught me”, when seeing Zaveid tense up, Dezel immediately continued, “idiot, I mean _theoretically_ ”

“ _Ah_ …”, Zaveid said relaxing again, and Dezel was about to insult him for even consider the other possibility but Zaveid spoke again, his face full of curiosity, “and while _practicing_ yourself…did you think about me?”

Dezel managed to blush even more if possible.

“Tsk, do you really have to ask?”, he averted his eyes with embarrassment, but to his surprise instead of the chuckle that he was expecting Zaveid simply made him turn his face towards him again to kiss him intensely slow, his tongue sneaking inside his mouth languidly and causing Dezel to let out a satisfied whine against his will.

“Well, I’m really glad to know that I was not the only one in making naughty things when thinking about you”

Dezel’s eyes snapped opened when hearing Zaveid’s comment.

“Wait…you…you also…”

Zaveid chuckled.

“Of course, Dezel-chan. More than one morning I’ve been forced to take really cold showers when waking up and finding your tempting sleeping figure next to me. The same way that a lot of times I made up the excuse to abandon the training in order to help other people with ‘circus stuff’ when actually I couldn’t stand seeing you in that extremely sexy tank top that you use to wear while training without feeling the need of pouncing on you”

After assimilating Zaveid’s confession, Dezel felt so damn happy to discover that Zaveid had also had difficulties to hold back that in an impulse he grabbed Zaveid’s face between his hands and kissed him violently, tongue included, the sudden passionate gesture causing Zaveid to groan appreciatively while enclosing his arms around Dezel’s lower back.

“I love you”, Dezel whispered when the kiss stopped, gulping when Zaveid looked at him back with such a tender and caring expression that an extremely warming sensation invaded his chest.

“I love you too, Dezel”, Zaveid whispered with an uncharacteristic soft tone, “and even if I keep the ‘Ladykiller’ alias because it was Lafarga the one who gave it to me, I promise you that from now on you’re going to be the only one in my life. And that’s not going to change. Never”

Dezel gulped again, trying to remove the lump that had formed in his throat when hearing Zaveid made that promise, and since he didn’t trust his own voice he decided to answer Zaveid with a tight hug, burying his head into the crook of the older Wind Seraph’s neck and using his arms to surround Zaveid’s powerful back, and for the way he felt Zaveid smiling against his head while returning the intimate embrace Dezel knew that Zaveid had understood that he thought the same.

That, from then on, Zaveid was going to be the only one in his life. And that that wasn’t goint to change. Never.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Weeell, I promised that this chapter would be long I think that I fulfilled my promise: 9000 words of almost pure smut xD. Theoretically, this chapter was going to have a first part with smut aaand a second part with story plot but at the end I’ve decided to leave it as a single chapter or otherwise it was going to be extremely long again ^^U
> 
> Also, since probably the next chapter will be the last of this Past Arc and it’s going to be a really sad chapter (since finally the incident that divided the Windriders is going to be explained) I wanted this one to be really happy (and I hope that hot too :P) 
> 
> As always, feel free to leave any comment/critic/suggestion that you consider. It will be greatly appreciated :)
> 
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> Note: I’ll try to update in three weeks at most but I can’t make any promises, since I have a June full of horrible exams -.- And even if I would love to keep writing I would like to pass too xD


	9. Past Arc – Final Part: Tragic Incident

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And another rather monstrous chapter. Sorry, at the end it took me a little more than three weeks ^^U 
> 
> WARNING: brief M scene and drama. Especially drama -.-

**1 year later (5 years ago the present day)**

For a moment Dezel thought that his last spin was going to make him fall. However, just at the last second he managed to recover his balance and finish with a little forced but still rather good stance. At least under his point of view.

“Wow, Dezel-chan, that last movement has been extremely graceful…”

Dezel snorted when hearing Zaveid’s ironic tone.

“Well, I haven’t fallen so that’s what matters”

Dezel’s superior smile caused Zaveid to laugh. They both were practicing on the tightrope and it was the first time that Dezel had been able to mimic Zaveid’s movements almost perfectly. Consequently, the younger Wind Seraph was feeling extremely happy, and even if Zaveid was teasing him as much as always it was evident how proud he was of him.

“Okay, Dezel-chan, now be prepared for the most difficult movement of all the times”

Dezel rolled his eyes while adopting again his starting stance.

“Stop trying to scare me and get on with it, _old man_ ”

Dezel smirked when Zaveid half-closed his eyes at him when being called that.

“Very well, _shrimp…_ ”, it was Dezel’s turn to half-close his eyes at him, “…let’s see if you can keep your balance with… _THIS_!”

Dezel let out a rather undignified high-pitched cry when suddenly Zaveid threw himself at him with a jump, causing the both of them to fall from the tightrope to land into the giant mat that was placed just under them in a mess of tangled limbs.

“Bastard! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”, Dezel exclaimed, but he was making a really great effort not to laugh when seeing the childish triumphant expression that Zaveid was wearing at that moment.

“I just wanted to show you that you are still a _shrimp_ that isn’t able to keep his balance”, he said with a purposely condescending tone while crawling over Dezel until being pining him down on the mat.

“Yeah, and the fact that I’ve fallen because a mad giant has stomped on me has _nothing_ to do with it, right?”, Dezel replied, smiling with irony and automatically opening his legs more to let Zaveid settle between them comfortably.

“Exactly. That was just a minor detail”, Zaveid said with a nonchalant tone that caused Dezel to laugh because of Zaveid’s nerve, but since at that moment the older Wind Seraph leant down to kiss him sensually slow Dezel decided that he could wait to keep insulting Zaveid later. Right then, he preferred to enclose his arms around Zaveid’s back and enjoy the contact of his lips against his own.

Dezel sighed in delight when Zaveid began to slowly grind his body against him, creating a light but at the same time satisfying friction that Dezel immediately welcomed by beginning to move his hips up against Zaveid’s ones.  Damn, even if they had been together for more than a year Dezel kept feeling in the pit of his stomach that indescribable heat every time that Zaveid and him got intimate.

“What have I told you about using the mat for sexual purposes?”

Zaveid and Dezel stopped immediately when suddenly hearing Lafarga’s voice, and although they were momentarily afraid when hearing the old man’s serious tone, after seeing the affectionate smile that was adorning his face both Wind Seraphs relaxed instantly again.

“It’s Zaveid’s fault”, Dezel accused immediately, “it’s him the one who has begun”

“Buut you haven’t stopped me so it’s your fault as well”, Zaveid replied with a smile, kissing Dezel briefly again before finally stepping outside the mat, followed by a resigned Dezel.

“So how has the training been?”, Lafarga asked while looking at Dezel, and this one felt a wave of satisfaction when seeing the pride that was adorning as well the man’s grey eyes, “it seems that you are getting more and more used to perform on the tightrope. With that rhythm of improvement you’ll be able to do the show in a couple of months”

“Really?!”, Dezel exclaimed with a genuine happy tone that caused the older men to laugh.

“Yes, really”, Lafarga said before turning to look at Zaveid with a teasing glint in his eyes, “so be careful, Zaveid: if you don’t train maybe your boyfriend steals your position as one of the main Wind Seraphs from you”

Zaveid snorted.

“Then you must be careful too because maybe we will _both_ be the ones who steal the show from _you_ ”

Lafarga chuckled when hearing Zaveid’s purposely provocative tone.

“Yes, I know that’s going to eventually happen and I’m very happy about it, but as long as these old bones of mine keep obeying me I’m afraid that you won’t be able to let me out of the show, young man”

Zaveid laughed with amusement before enclosing an arm around Lafarga’s neck.

“What are you saying, idiot?”, he said with an affectionate tone, “the three of us are the Wind Seraphs and that isn’t going to change even when you turn 80, so don’t you dare to think that you are able to rest just because you’re a little older than us”

Lafarga chuckled again when seeing Dezel nod with emphasis, showing his agreement on Zaveid’s words.

“Well, I’ll try to meet your expectations and reach the eighties but I can’t make any promises to have enough energy to keep performing”

After keeping chatting for some more minutes Lafarga left after asking the younger Wind Seraphs to rest well since they had a show to do that same night.

“Jeez, this week we’ve had to perform almost every day. We are going to die from exhaustion…”

Dezel threw a skeptical glance towards Zaveid when hearing his obviously fake protesting tone.

“Stop pretending that you don’t like the fame of Zaveid ‘the Ladykiller’”, Dezel said with an ironic tone.

“Hey, you’re no one to talk”, Zaveid replied with a smile while crossing his arms, “if I remember correctly during the last two shows it was not me the one who was asked for a date by a group of charming ladies”

Dezel shrugged when hearing Zaveid’s comment before interlacing his fingers together to raise his arms over his head, in order to stretch.

“Well, it’s not my fault that those ladies had better taste than…”, Dezel shut up when Zaveid disappeared from his view to reappear just behind him, so close that he could feel the man’s chest against his back, “hey, what are you…?”

Dezel’s sentence ended with a whine when Zaveid placed his hands over his shoulders and began to massage them.

“Helping you to relax”, Zaveid said simply, although something in his apparent innocent tone caused Dezel to suffer a small shiver.

“I don’t know if it’s a good idea”, he said before exhaling a soft whimper when Zaveid began to rotate this thumbs between his shoulder blades, “you know what happens every time that we do this”

Zaveid chuckled and leant forward to settle his mouth just in Dezel’s ear, and the light contact mixed with Zaveid’s amazing hands traveling down his back to keep applying exactly the perfect pressure caused the younger Wind Seraph to bite his bottom lip not to let out a moan.

“It’s your fault for letting out such sexy noises when I do _this_ …”, Zaveid purred in his ear while applying extra pressure just on Dezel’s lower back, which was extremely sensitive and caused Dezel to arch his body while gasping.

“Damn you…”, Dezel managed to exhale, turning his head to throw a ‘glare’ at Zaveid, who was smirking without any shame.

“Hey, it’s not my fault that you are so weak to this kind of ministrations. Besides…”, Zaveid approached Dezel’s face until their lips were almost touching, “…even if you protest it’s evident how much you like it…”

Dezel blushed slightly when Zaveid pointed with his eyes his now evident erection, but fortunately after a year of being dating he had learnt how to reply to almost all Zaveid’s replies.

“Tsk, don’t pretend that I’m the only one who is affected”

While talking Dezel casually grinded his ass back softly, the action causing Zaveid to gasp, and Dezel couldn’t help to smile with satisfaction when discovering that indeed he wasn’t the only one hard.

“So?”, Dezel turned around to be facing Zaveid, whose eyes were now shining with a light that caused Dezel to shiver again, “who is the one who is weak to this kind of ministrations?”

Dezel never obtained his answer. He just knew that barely ten minutes later he was struggling to keep his uncontrollable moans under control while Zaveid pounded into him fast and hard against the wall of the backstage, his legs and arms wrapped around Zaveid’s body tightly in order not to fall.

“Ah… _aah_ …”, Dezel exhaled against Zaveid’s parted lips while incrementing the grip of his arms around the older man’s shoulders to secure himself a little more when beginning to meet down every powerful thrust with passion, “oh _yes_ …”

They mouths met again in a bruising deep kiss while Zaveid used his hands to spread Dezel’s buttocks a little more so that he could enter him even better, the deeper angle causing the younger Wind Seraph to throw his head back while moaning wantonly.

“Ooh yes… _there_ …”, Dezel exhaled in ecstasy while pushing his heels against Zaveid’s bare ass to encourage the older Wind Seraph to enter him even harder, the action causing Zaveid to grunt with arousal.

“ _Dezel…”_ , Zaveid incremented even more his pace and kissed the younger Wind Seraph passionately, swallowing his noises that were unconsciously growing in intensity now that his prostrate was being ravaged with every wild slam of Zaveid’s hips, “I really love hearing you but if you aren’t quiet someone is going to discover us…”

Dezel was about to reply that in that case it would be his fault but he didn’t because it wouldn’t be fair. After all he hadn’t protested at all when Zaveid had pinned him against the wall to begin to make out wildly with him. In fact, now that he remembered when Zaveid had suggested to change locations it had been _him_ the one who had practically broken Zaveid’s pants in his hurry to open them, clearly hinting that he didn’t want to wait a single second longer.

So no, definitely he couldn’t blame Zaveid for anything but for being so damn good that it was impossible for him to remain quiet even if trying it with all his forces.

“Z-Zaveid…”, Dezel whispered some moments later when feeling himself approaching his limit, and for the way Zaveid’s pace was slowly becoming erratic he accurately deduced that the older Wind Seraph was about to finish as well.

“Okay…”, Zaveid said with a nod while pushing out from Dezel to place him on the ground again, and even if Dezel immediately missed Zaveid’s length filling him they had learnt from previous passionate outdoor experiences that finishing inside, even if hot, wasn’t the best idea since the following process of cleaning was a pain to deal with it.

So, thanks the times that their sexual needs had been greater than his common sense resulting in similar situations like the one they were in, they discovered that even if it was less satisfactory it was way better to finish the way they were doing right then: with Zaveid masturbating their two members together while Dezel made sure to have the tissues prepared on hand. It probably wasn’t the sexiest way to reach their climax together but definitely it was the most efficient one.

“Dezel…”, Zaveid leant forward to capture Dezel’s lips in another heated kiss just in time to prevent the whine that Dezel exhaled when Zaveid incremented the rhythm of his hand, using his thumb to tease alternatively the leaking tips of their respective members, “Dezel, _now_ …”

Even if Zaveid’s words were a warning and not a command, Dezel couldn’t hold back anymore when hearing Zaveid’s breathless voice and came, although fortunately he covered their respective members with a tissue in time, managing to do it just when Zaveid was finishing as well.

After partially recovering their recently lost breathing, Zaveid leant forward to kiss Dezel with calm while slowly getting down from the high of their recent sexual experience.

“I don’t think that this can count as resting but I feel extremely refreshed right now”

Dezel chuckled still a little laboredly when hearing Zaveid’s satisfied tone.

“Speak for yourself”, he said with irony, “it’s not your back the one who is going to protest tonight”

Zaveid laughed.

“Well, I can always give you another _massage_ to try to fix it…”

Dezel chuckled again when hearing the way Zaveid had spelled that word.

“No, thank you. I think that I’ve had enough _massages_ for today”, he said, mimicking purposely Zaveid’s tone and causing the man to smile with amusement.

“Oh, then that means that it hasn’t been satisfactory enough?”

Dezel rolled his eyes when hearing Zaveid’s casual tone.

“You love to be praised, don’t you?”, he said with resignation, but he was smiling when leaning forward to kiss Zaveid a little more intensely than usual, “yeah, it’s been _more_ than satisfactory”

Zaveid was genuinely surprised when hearing Dezel’s words.

“Wow, Dezel, congratulations! You’ve managed to admit how damn good I make you feel without blushi…okay, false alarm: you’re definitely blushing now…”

“ _Argh_ , shut up!”

Zaveid laughed openly and kissed a rather bright red Dezel with tenderness.

“I love you”

As always, Dezel’s chest was invaded with a warm sensation when hearing Zaveid’s words. Damn, he knew that after having been together for a year already he should be used to Zaveid saying things like that to him, the same way that he should be able to resist more Zaveid’s natural sex appeal, but he couldn’t help it and every time that the older man reaffirmed his feelings for him Dezel felt immensely happy.

And about their libido settling down…well, it had just been proved that they still had a long way to go until being able to remain alone and not feel the desire to jump into the other one. Not that he minded it.

“What you love is teasing me”, Dezel replied with irony despite he was smiling like an idiot in love.

“Yeah, that as well”, Zaveid admitted without any shame, “and I know that you like it more than you want to admit”

Dezel rolled his eyes but his smile kept being in place because Zaveid wasn’t wrong.

“Come on, let’s go. Rose and Edna have to be about to come here to train. And by the way…”, Dezel surprised Zaveid with a soft peck on the lips, “…me too”

It took Zaveid a moment to realize that Dezel had just answered his previous declaration but when he did Dezel found himself gasping for air when Zaveid kissed him with vigor.

“Damn, Dezel, you’re too cute for your own good”

“O-Oi, don’t call me that!”

“Well, don’t be and I won’t call you”

“Oh god, you’re so exasperating…”

“Yeah, but I know that you like that as well”

And again, unable to negate the older Wind Seraph’s statement, Dezel just kissed him violently in an attempt to remove that too satisfied smile from his face without any success.

* * *

After discarding the used tissues and rearranging themselves the best they could they left the tent just when Rose was entering.

“Oh, I didn’t know that you were still …”, Rose stopped talking, a mischievous smile appearing on her face while her eyes fixed on a particular point in Dezel’s neck, “… _training_ ”

Dezel automatically settled a hand over the place that Rose was staring, the action betraying him and causing the girl’s smile to grow.

“Don’t bother to hide it, Dezel-chan”, Zaveid said with a completely relaxed tone, “you have more on the other side of your neck so…”

Dezel glared at his smirking boyfriend while Rose suppressed a chuckle.

“Oh, come on, don’t look at me like that”, Zaveid said with a conciliatory tone, “they aren’t too visible so I don’t think that anyone but our observant Rose ‘the Rose’ notices them”

 “Notice what?”, just at that moment Edna approached the tent and with her usual imperturbable expression she fixed her eyes on Dezel before continuing speaking, “the giant red mark that Dezel has on his neck?”

“WHAT?!”

Zaveid and Rose burst out laughing when hearing Dezel’s mortified tone, and when seeing the way Edna was suppressing a smile the younger Wind Seraph discovered that the blonde had just mocked him.

“Ha ha ha, very funny”, Dezel tried to use an irritated tone but Rose and Zaveid’s laughs were making that task difficult.

“Oh, there you are”

At that moment Lailah joined the group as well.

“Hey, Lailah-chan!”, Zaveid said with a smile, “you’ve arrived just in time to tease Dezel. You and Eizen are the only ones left”

Lailah chuckled when seeing Dezel show an expression full of patience.

“Maybe later”, she said with a smile, “right now Lafarga wants us to go to the main tent”

“Let me guess”, Rose said, “another stupid nobleman that is trying to convince us about how good it would be to cede the rights of the Windriders?”

Everyone chuckled when hearing Rose’s ironic tone. During the last year the Windriders circus had prospered a lot and consequently it was rather common that people came to the circus asking to join them, what was great. But being more famous also meant that certain self-interested people tried to offer them deals that only aimed to obtain benefits at their expenses. Fortunately, those last visits were much less frequent.

“The nobleman part is true”, Lailah explained, “the visitant certainly seems powerful and rich but at least if he wants to take advantage of us he is doing it way more subtly than our previous opportunists”

“Well, it’s a little pointless to begin to guess without knowing the man himself”, Edna commented.

“You’re right but I still bet that he is an opportunist”, Rose insisted stubbornly, causing Edna to roll her eyes while smiling a little.

“And Eizen doesn’t come?”, Dezel inquired while beginning to follow Lailah towards the tent where the reunion was taking place.

“He is already there”, Lailah explained.

“Of course he is”, Zaveid said with a purposely condescending tone, “we all know that he is Lafarga’s favorite and consequently he is always informed first”

Lailah hit Zaveid’s ribs playfully.

“Idiot, you know that’s not true. He just happened to be first and for that reason…”

“I know, silly. You don’t need to defend your fiancé”, Zaveid interrupted her with affection while ruffling her hair, causing the long-haired woman to half-close her eyes at him ‘threateningly’, but since she was blushing happily her glare lost all her effect.

“Oh, that’s right, it’s just three months until that!”, Rose exclaimed while joining her hands together with enthusiasm, “hey, are you sure that you don’t want to move up the wedding?!”

Lailah chuckled.

“We’ve talked about this already”, she said with a patient but at the same time affectionate tone, “these two months are usually the busiest since we have way more visitants than in the rest of the year, so we prefer to wait until autumn since we’ll have more free time”

“Mmm, and after that how much until the babies?”, Zaveid asked with a teasing smile, his comment causing Lailah to blush even more.

“I-it’s too soon for that!”, she exclaimed, “we are still too young: I’m just twenty-two a-and I don’t feel prepared yet to…”

“Lailah, ignore him”, Dezel intervened while hitting Zaveid on the back of his head, causing the man to exhale a soft ‘ouch’, “he is just teasing you”

“And what about you?”, Edna intervened, looking at the two Wind Seraphs, “were are _you_ going to marry?”

“WHAT?!”, Dezel exclaimed, causing the girls to begin to laugh.

“Oh god, your face has been priceless!”, Rose exclaimed while Dezel glared at her, and he was about to reply when Zaveid intervened.

“Well, even if Dezel is already seventeen I would like to wait until he is at least twenty to propose”

Dezel stared at Zaveid in disbelief when hearing Zaveid’s serious tone, his eyes opened at his maximum.

“Are you serious?”, he managed to say, and he felt his heart skip a beat when Zaveid smiled at him with tenderness.

“Yeah, I am. After all I know that I’m going to spend the rest of my life with you ,so to marry would have a lot of sense, don’t you think?”

After a moment of silence Dezel enclosed his arms around Zaveid’s neck and kissed him passionately, causing Zaveid to smile against his mouth while enclosing his arms around his body.

“Well, for your reaction it seems that you don’t dislike the idea…”

“Idiot”, Dezel snapped with a trembling voice before kissing him again. It was incredible that the man who always teased him and usually acted so childishly was able to say those breathtaking things as well. Things that made him be even more in love with him if possible.

“Look at those idiots in love”, Rose said with a teasing but happy tone.

“They are cheesy as hell”, Edna snapped, but she was smiling too.

“Yes, but they are so cute”, Lailah replied while settling both of her hands over her chest, her tone trembling a little with sincere emotion.

At that moment Dezel finally realized that they weren’t alone so he immediately stopped the kiss, his cheeks burning with embarrassment.

“W-well, umh, we should go to the tent already”, he babbled, causing the rest to chuckle before finally following his completely red friend inside the main tent.

As Lailah had commented, Eizen was already there together with Lafarga and a man that obviously was the nobleman that had came to visit.

However, unlike the previous noblemen that they had met, the strong aura that surrounded the visitant together with his rather imposing presence made evident that the man in front of them was used to rule. Also, the way he was sitting on the table, with his back completely straight in a firm but at the same time relaxed stance and his fingers interlaced over the table made clear that it was a man used to discuss, the same way that his polite but also lightly condescending smile showed that he was used to get what he wanted, and when detecting that Dezel couldn’t help to adopt the same determined stance while looking back at the man with his most determined look, as if wanting to remind him that right then he was in _their_ territory and that consequently that meant that at that moment they had the upper hand.

“It has taken you a while”, Lafarga’s amicable and relaxed tone effectively destroyed the interchange of glances between Dezel and the stranger, “everyone, take a sit. There is something that we have to discuss together”

Lafarga waited until everyone took his usual place to speak again.

“Windriders, this is Lord Hedalf”, the man inclined briefly his head towards the rest when Lafarga introduced him, “he belongs to one of the most important noble families of Rolance and he is here to make us an offer that, according to him, we aren’t going to be able to reject”

“Well, it’s not the first time that we’ve been told that and we haven’t accepted any single offer yet”

Dezel was surprised when Lord Hedalf chuckled. He was the first person who came to visit them to offer them a deal that reacted so well to Zaveid’s purposely rude comment instead of feeling insulted.

“That’s because until now you haven’t received such a nice offer like the one I’m going to propose you right now”

Dezel had to suppress the impulse to roll his eyes, because one thing that Lord Hedalf did share with the other nobles was that certainly annoying overconfident attitude.

“In that case let’s hear that impossible-to-reject offer”, Eizen intervened with a soft smile despite his eyes were showing alert.

Lord Hedalf showed a smile full of teeth that evoked the image of a wild lion on Dezel’s mind for a brief moment before beginning to speak.

“Alright, first of all let me congratulate you for the absolutely amazing circus that you have managed to create. I’ve come to see your performances several times and I must praise you for being able to make similar but at the same time different shows that are always really appealing to see”

“Flattery is not going to be enough to convince us, you know?”

“Edna!”, Lailah scolded Edna lightly while Dezel bit his bottom lip not to laugh, and the cough that Zaveid suddenly suppressed sounded really suspicious.

“Don’t worry, it’s understandable that you think that way”, Lord Hedalf said immediately with a smile that again didn’t look bothered at all, “however what I’m saying is completely true: I think that your circus is spectacular and that has potential to become the best of the world, and for that reason I would like to offer you to associate with me”

“And what exactly is that association about?”, Zaveid asked without bothering to hide his reluctance.

“It’s really simple”, Lord Hedalf’s smile widened, “I’ll take care of all your expenses, including the animals care and the assembly of all the installations. Also, the benefits that you obtain for your shows will keep being yours and yours only, and you’ll keep having complete freedom to do your shows as you’ve been doing until now.

“In exchange, there are a couple of conditions that you should fulfill.

“First, instead of keeping traveling from city to city you’ll have to be installed in my domains. Of course, I compromise to make the appropriate publicity so that all the cities have word of all your shows, but the difference is that the visitants are the ones who will move to see you perform, and not the contrary”

“And second, since I’m a really popular man (I don’t mention it for boasting, it’s just the simple truth) I use to reunite with several important people to make business, and sometimes the reunions can end being difficult, tiring and boring, lasting  even more than one day. Consequently, I would like to count with your services and disposition for those occasions. Of course you wouldn’t have to do a complete show, maybe some shorter actuations would be enough. Like a private show for my clients in order to entertain them”

After Lord Hedalf spoke there was a rather long silence in which all the Windriders remained lost in their thoughts.

“So?”, Lafarga ended saying, his tone and expression as calm as always in a way that it was impossible to know what he was really thinking, “what do you think?”

Dezel hesitated. Thinking carefully about it, Lord Hedalf’s proposal was not so bad, since it would be a relief to be able to forget taking care of the most annoying things like cleaning the animals, buy the equipments, checking the assembly of the tents…

Besides, now that they were famous enough maybe it would be a nice change to be established in one single place, since it would be assured that people was going to come to visit them. After all, like that they wouldn’t lose so much time traveling between cities and they would have more time for themselves as well.

Yeah. Lord Hedalf’s proposal was rather good. But…

“With all my respects, I don’t like the idea of anyone ordering me around”, Zaveid’s honest words resounded in the suddenly silent room, “so even if associating seems to be more profitable in several aspects I still prefer to remain as we are”

Dezel gulped, looking at Zaveid in awe while feeling extremely proud and at the same time jealous of his boyfriend for being able to say aloud what he (and probably everyone) was thinking with such determination. Damn, he still had a way to go until being able to have such a strong personality that allowed him to talk what he really thought with that security.

“I think the same way”, Dezel said immediately. At least, even if he hadn’t been the first one in talking he would be the first in supporting Zaveid’s opinion, “I would prefer to keep being able to choose the shows that I want to do and how and when to do them”

“You’ll be able to keep doing that”, Lord Hedalf intervened, a little too hurriedly, “the only difference is that besides those shows that will keep being accessible to all the public you will also do more concrete shows just with certain special clients”

“That’s precisely the condition that we don’t like very much”, Eizen explained then, a slight apologetic but firm smile on his face, “we want our circus to reach everyone and anywhere. We want to be able to entertain people no matter their condition, position or money. And what you are proposing is precisely the contrary”

“We appreciate the offer”, Lailah said with a soft tone, “we really do. But it’s as Eizen has just said: we don’t want to make exceptions in our shows with anyone, much less to restrict shows just to certain people”

“And about not having to move anymore I personally enjoy the travels a lot”, Rose added, “and I think that forcing people to come just to a single place is a little selfish”

“So, in conclusion, sorry but we are afraid that we can’t accept your offer”, Edna finished with her characteristic conclusive tone”

After everyone expressed their opinions, there was another silence in which Lord Hedalf looked at them alternatively with an evident disappointed expression on his sharp factions, just on the contrary than Lafarga, who was smiling to himself with a rather satisfied smile, as if he was proud of the responses that they all had given.

“Well, it seems that your master was right when warning me that his disciples were extremely hard to satisfy”

Dezel was surprised when Lord Hedalf answered with a polite and understanding tone, since he was expecting a condescending or almost insulting reply when hearing the Windriders’ negative. Well, it seemed that his first impression about the man not being able to accept a no for an answer had been wrong.

 “My apologies, Lord Hedalf”, Lafarga said with a sincere tone, “your proposal was really generous but I’m afraid that the Windriders are too free to belong to anyone”

Dezel was surprised when suddenly Zaveid leant forward casually towards him to whisper just in his ear.

“That’s a lie. I belong to you”

Dezel couldn’t help to blush from head to toe when hearing Zaveid’s words, and when seeing the man wink at him discretely with a wide smile on his face he didn’t know if he wanted to hit him or to kiss him furiously. Probably both. Although the balance was inclining more for the second one.

“Alright, something has just occurred to me”, Lord Hedalf said after some seconds, “I suppose that you know about it already but have you heard about the festival that is going to take place in Ladylake in a couple of months?”

“Yeah, of course”, Rose said unable to hide her enthusiasm, “it’s the most famous festival of Hyland. All the most famous artist dream to go there to do their shows”

“If you are disposed to pay the fees that are required to be able to perform in the capital”, Eizen added with a resigned tone, and just after talking he opened his turquoise eyes wide while staring at Lord Hedalf with astonishment, “wait a minute, don’t tell me that you are suggesting…”

Lord Hedalf smiled, his overconfidence back on his factions again.

“What I am suggesting is that in case you wanted to go, I could easily pay those fees together with all the equipment that you need to perform”

“So, in other words, that’s a bribery to make us accept your previous proposal”

Lord Hedalf laughed when hearing Edna’s comment.

“Bribery is a really ugly word. I just want to show you how much I’m disposed to invest in order to be able to associate with you”

“Lord Hedalf, I am afraid that the answer is going to be the same”, Lafarga said with an apologetic tone.

“Maybe you are right”, Lord Hedalf agreed, “but I still have the hope that you change your mind after seeing what it means to work under a man who is disposed to pay for everything without caring about the price at all. So please, even if you don’t accept my proposal yet, at least accept this opportunity. Consider it as a petition from an eccentric rich man and a prove of my admiration for you”

After Lord Hedalf stopped talking, everyone interchanged hesitant looks, this time Lafarga included, because as Rose had commented Ladylake’s festival was probably the best of the world and the only reason for which they hadn’t gone yet was because the registration fees were exorbitant and they preferred to use that money in less famous but more abundant festivals in other towns.

However to be able to do a show in the capital guaranteed to be well known in the entire world, so it was a great opportunity that no artist would dare to let pass by.

“So?”, Lord Hedalf said with a calm tone, “will you accept?”

“Sorry, but there must be a trap”, Zaveid snapped even if his shining eyes proved that he really wanted to go to that festival, “there is something that you must gain from this or you wouldn’t be so generous when knowing that we can reject your association at the end”

Dezel was surprised when Lord Hedalf smiled even more instead of being bothered by Zaveid’s words.

“You’re really distrustful, Zaveid ‘the Ladykiller’. Although you have guessed right. There is something that I would like you to do for me: to accept my daughter as you apprentice in your circus during these two months”.

Expressions of surprise appeared in everyone’s faces when hearing that totally unexpected petition, so Lord Hedalf decided to expand his explanation.

“She has always dreamt to become a circus artist and I know that working with you would make her immensely happy. Besides, she is very talented, although of course I understand that you’ll think that I’m just speaking as a loving father so you’ll have to be the ones in having the last word about her skills. However…”, Dezel was surprised when Lord Hedalf gulped before continuing speaking with a tone that carried an undeniable sadness in it, “…there is also something that you must know about her and it’s that she is mute. She has been since the moment she was born, what unfortunately has caused a lot of people around her to see her like a disabled despite of my attempts to stop that from happening since she is a perfectly sane girl, both physically and mentally. Consequently, she is extremely shy and has problems to interact with the rest, resulting in her being in her own world more than she should, to the point that sometimes she even disappears for hours to be alone”, Lord Hedalf smiled a little apologetically, “I’m aware that to treat with a person like this can be bothersome and uncomfortable, but I would really appreciate that you consider to have her with you. Of course, I don’t mean that she has to remain with you forever, it would be just these two months so…”

“We’ll accept her”, Lafarga said immediately, obviously moved after hearing Lafarga’s explanation, “and what is more: if after these two months she wants to keep being with us we’ll accept her gladly. Right, Windriders?”

“Yes, if that’s your condition to participate in the festival we’ll fulfill it gladly”, Eizen agreed with a smile.

“We’ll take good care of her”, Lailah said with a reassuring tone, “you can be at ease in that aspect”

“Mmm, maybe I could convince her to become a Wind Seraph”, Zaveid said thinking to himself, “we’ve never had a female apprentice and it surely would be a nice change, don’t you think Dezel-chan?”

“Why are you asking me?”, Dezel asked with surprise, “you and Lafarga are the teachers, not me”

“Well, but if she decides to join our show you would be teaching her as well”, Zaveid replied, “after all you know the basics like the palm of your hand so you could teach her perfectly”

Dezel’s mouth and eyes opened wide in disbelief and satisfaction.

“She will join the Wind Seraphs no matter what the cost”

Rose snorted while the rest laughed again when hearing Dezel’s enthusiastic tone.

“Sorry, guys, but _I_ will be the one in convince her to do a combined show with me and we’ll be the BEST dagger performers of all Ladylake’s festival”, Rose said with conviction.

“And why don’t you let the girl decide for herself?”, Edna said with a resigned tone.

The Windriders kept discussing during almost another minute until Lord Hedalf interrupted them with an extremely grateful tone.

 “Thank you, Windriders. You don’t know how much this means for me. I’m sure my daughter will be happy no matter what show you decide to put her in”

“Well, as long as she is at least fifteen she will be able to be in all the shows”, Lafarga said with a smile.

“Oh, perfect, because she just turned sixteen the last month”, Lord Hedalf said with a relieved tone.

“And what’s her name?”, Zaveid inquired with an amused smile, “after all Lafarga will have to think about an alias just in case she decides to join us definitely”

Lord Hedalf smiled openly before finally answering. 

“Symonne. Her name is Symonne”

* * *

“Woooooow!!”

Rose’s enthusiastic cry together with her funnily astonished expression caused the rest of the Windriders to begin to laugh, and Dezel was grateful for that because he had been about to have the same reaction than Rose, since the sight that welcomed them when entering the capital of Hyland was simply wonderful. The colorful decorations that were adorning the main street to the point that the streetlights and balconies of the houses were barely visible; the almost countless stands full of merchants of all ages selling food, accessories or souvenirs; the musicians that were walking through the already crowded main street while playing diverse instruments to liven up even more the already lively ambience.

Definitely Lafarga hadn’t been lying when saying that Ladylake’s festival was the best of the world.

“Dezel-chan, don’t try to pretend that you aren’t excited: your eyes shine even more than Rose’s ones”

Dezel couldn’t help to blush while half-closing his eyes at Zaveid, but before he could reply Eizen intervened.

“Look who is talking”, Eizen signaled with amusement the big balloon that Zaveid had just confiscated from one of the streetlamps and that was shamelessly carrying attached to his belt.

“H-hey, I’ve already told you that I’ve only grabbed it for Symonne-chan”, Zaveid tried to justify himself rather poorly before looking around, “by the way, where is she?”

“Oh no, don’t tell me that she has gone lost again”, Lailah exclaimed with a worried tone while beginning to look around as well, although more hysterically than Zaveid.

“Nope, she is right there”, Edna signaled one of the accessories stands where Symonne was standing quietly, apparently observing with deep interest a pair of orange flower-shaped hair ties.

“Thank goodness”, Lailah let out a patient sigh and approached Symonne to, supposedly, scold her, although at the end the only thing she did was to buy the pair of hair ties, causing Symonne to tense up when Lailah began to comb her hair in two ponytails.

“She keeps being as distracted as always”, Lafarga commented with a resigned but also affectionate tone.

“And it seems that even after being these two months with us she hasn’t get used to Lailah’s maternal nature yet”, Zaveid commented with an amused smile, and he was right because during the time that Lailah had been combing her hair Symonne had been staring fixedly at the floor, her normally pale cheeks lightly red.

“But she is more relaxed than when she entered the circus”, Eizen added, “at first it was impossible to make her join us in our meals”

“She wasn’t probably used to have such a chatterbox next to her…”, Dezel commented while throwing a glance towards Rose.

“Hey, what do you mean by that?”, she exclaimed with an offended tone.

“She is a weirdo”, Edna said with a completely natural tone, “but we all are so that’s not really a problem”

“Yeah, you are right, we are no ones to talk”, Zaveid chuckled before speaking again with a more serious tone, “and I really think that she would be better with us than with her father. He seems to be a really strict man”

“Yeah, he certainly didn’t look like the most affable father of all the times but he must love her daughter if his only condition to allow us participate in this festival has been to accept her”, Eizen reasoned, his argument causing Zaveid to end agreeing with a nod, and since at that moment Lailah and Symonne finally joined them again everyone decided to stop talking about the girl.

“Alright, Windriders, pay attention”, Lafarga said at that moment, “according to the letter that Lord Hedalf sent us we have to go to speak with Lady Maltran, one of the main organizers of the festival, in order to sign a couple of papers before being able to act tomorrow”

“Wait, what kind of papers?”, Dezel asked with a suspicious tone, because even if Lord Hedalf had always been extremely nice and polite the couple of times that they had seen him again during those two months, he didn’t let pass any opportunity to emphasize how good it would be to join him, so a part of Dezel feared that the man tried to trick them and consequently he was not keen on getting along with the man.

With Symonne, on the contrary, he didn’t feel like that. In fact, after discovering that Lord Hedalf hadn’t exaggerated when saying that she was talented in practically all the activities, Dezel found himself enjoying the times in which she had come to ask him to try to use the pendulums, because it was evident that the girl was dying to learn new things and she was a really fast learner, so working with her was really funny. It was true that the fact that she was mute complicated the communication at first, but in very little time they all managed to understand the girl’s gestures.

However, even when they managed to communicate, Dezel noticed that Symonne never mentioned anything about her father, and the few times that Rose had tried to ask for details the girl had completely ignored them, what made Dezel suspect that maybe the man wasn’t such a loving father as he wanted them to believe. And yes, he hadn’t the right to judge Lord Hedalf without proves, but he couldn’t help to suspect that the man wasn’t as understandable as he pretended.

“Relax. It’s just a formality”, Lafarga said with a reassuring tone, “since we are going to use borrowed materials and installations, Lord Hedalf recommended me to make an insurance to make sure that in case something breaks, we are extent to pay for it. And don’t worry: I can assure you that I’ve re-read those papers several times and there isn’t any trap in them”

Dezel visibly relaxed after hearing Lafarga’s words. Well, if the old man said that everything was fine there was nothing to worry about.

“Alright, in that case while the old man is going to do the boring paperwork stuff let’s go to enjoy this festival at its fullest!”, Zaveid exclaimed with such enthusiasm that everyone laughed except Dezel, who shook his head with a resigned smile for having such a childish boyfriend. Although the truth was that he was as excited as the rest.

“Have fun!”, Lafarga desired with a smile, “and make sure that you don’t lose Symonne!”

“Don’t worry, we will!”, Rose exclaimed before grabbing the girl’s arm with energy and beginning to run towards the rest who were already disappearing into the crowd.

* * *

Some hours later everyone finally decided to stop at the inn after having spending the whole afternoon going from one stand to another to play the fair activities that had been mounted and of course to also taste practically all the food that was offered. In fact, they had eaten so much that everyone decided not to have dinner, so they just accommodated themselves in the common room of the inn to wait for Lafarga’s arrival while talking calmly.

Fortunately, the wait wasn’t long because Dezel could feel his eyes beginning to close after spending such a funny but extenuating day.  

“Alright, everything is done”, Lafarga announced with a tired but satisfied smile the moment he entered the common room.   

“It has taken you a while”, Lailah said with a surprised tone.

“Bah, surely Lafarga has been flirting with Lady Maltran and he has been late for that reason”, Zaveid said with a teasing tone that made Lafarga chuckle.

“I have to admit that the woman was rather interesting but she is too young for me”, he said with a smile, “ so no, I’m afraid that the reason for my delay is I’ve checked that we had all the material we needed”

“Hey, you could have asked us for help”, Dezel protested.

“Yeah, it’s unfair!”, Rose exclaimed, “you haven’t had time to enjoy the festival!”

“I still can visit it tomorrow”, Lafarga said with a dismissive tone while sitting on one of the sofas, “besides, it should be the youngest the ones who should enjoy the festival the most. And speaking of that, where is Symonne”

“She has gone to sleep already”, Lailah explained, and after hesitating she added, “she looked really tired”

“And sad”, Edna added, saying aloud what everyone was thinking because they had noticed that the girl’s behavior during that afternoon had been a little more taciturn than usual, almost melancholic

“Well, it’s something logical”, Eizen commented, “since after tomorrow show maybe she comes back with her father”

“But we have told her already that she is free to remain with us if that’s what she wants!”, Rose exclaimed.

“Yeah, but maybe Lord Hedalf doesn’t let her do so. After all, when we asked him if she could participate with us he rejected the suggestion by saying that she wasn’t prepared enough”, Dezel snapped with a ruder tone that he had intended and that caused Lafarga to chuckle.

“I see that your opinion of Lord Hedalf isn’t very positive”, Lafarga spoke with an amused tone.

“And it seems that you care for Symonne-chan more than it seems at first glance”, Zaveid said with a teasing tone that caused Dezel to blush a little.

“I-I’m not worried, I just don’t want her to be unhappy in case of coming back with her father”

“That’s precisely what being worried means, Dezel”, Eizen intervened with a smile, making Dezel blush even more.

“Don’t worry, Dezel”, Lafarga said with a reassuring tone, “if at the end it’s as you fear and Lord Hedalf doesn’t want that Symonne remains with us I’ll go to speak to him to convince him”

“Yes, to ‘ _convince_ ’ him…”, Edna repeated pointing at her umbrella with such a threatening look that Dezel couldn’t help to laugh together with the rest.

After spending some more minutes of calming chat, the yawns became gradually more frequent so everyone decided to call it a day.

“Okay, but before going to sleep…”, Dezel was surprised when suddenly Lafarga approached Zaveid while extracting a coin from his pocket, “…heads or tails?”

Zaveid smiled and crossed his arms over his chest with confidence.

“Tails, of course”

Dezel observed with a confused expression Lafarga throwing the coin in the air and Zaveid letting out a slight frustrated sigh when the result was heads, and when seeing the way the rest of the Windriders were smiling knowingly he felt even more confused if possible. Why was he the only one who didn’t know what was that about?

“Okay, Dezel…”, Lafarga said with a wide smile fixing his grey eyes on him, “…you better rest well because tomorrow you are going to join me in the tightrope show”

It took a Dezel some long seconds to assimilate Lafarga’s words, and when he did the loud ‘WHAT?!’ that he exclaimed caused the innkeeper to enter the room hurriedly to check that nothing bad had just happened, and when seeing the way everything was laughing happily the poor man left the room with a sigh while muttering to himself a resigned ‘damn artists’.

“Congratulations, Dezel-chan”, Zaveid said, smiling proudly at him, “you’ve finally made it”

“Yeah, congratulations!!!!”, Rose repeated with enthusiasm while patting his back with such force that Dezel almost fell forwards, but he was too busy opening and closing his mouth alternatively trying to find something to say to mind the girl’s rudeness.

“You are going to make a great debut”, Eizen settled a hand over Dezel’s shoulder, “not everyone has the luck of doing his first performance in such an important festival”

“Oh god, I’m so happy for you!”, Lailah exclaimed with a touching tone, her eyes way brighter than usual, “I still remember when you always protested for not being able to use a pendulum and now look at you…”

“Yeah, and when he finally began to use it he was so clumsy that there wasn’t a day in which he didn’t break something”, Edna added.

“H-hey, I didn’t break so many things!”, Dezel protested, but it was just half-heartedly because he was really fighting to push back the giant lump that had settled on his throat.

Damn, he didn’t want to make a scene but it was being extremely difficult to hold back the tears because after a whole year of hard training he was finally going to accompany Lafarga in his show, during the most important festival of all the times, and damn if that wasn’t worthy of crying out of happiness.

* * *

Barely five minutes later Dezel was removing his clothes to enter the bed where Zaveid was already lying with just his boxers on and his hands crossed behind his head. Dezel smiled to himself, knowing that if he wasn’t so tired he would have surely felt aroused for that vision but all the emotions of the day together with the news of his imminent debut had caused his desire for his boyfriend to be replaced by his desire for the comfortable bed.

“So?”, Zaveid inquired while shifting a little to the side so that Dezel had enough space in the bed, “are you nervous for tomorrow?”

“Nah”, Dezel replied immediately with a dismissive tone, but when seeing the way Zaveid raised his eyebrows skeptically he exhaled a defeated sigh, “okay, yeah, I am”

Zaveid chuckled.

“It’s logical. After all it’s the first time that you are going to do the tightrope show in such an important festival. And in such a high place. And with so many people looking at you”

“Zaveid, you’re making a great job calming me down…”

Zaveid laughed when hearing Dezel’s sarcastic tone.

“But despite all that, if Lafarga has allowed you to perform that means that you are prepared enough”, Zaveid deposited a reassuring kiss on Dezel’s lips, “for that reason I’m sure that you’ll do it awesomely. And hey, if you end screwing it up the only thing that will happen is that you’ll fall aaaaall the way down to the mat and I’ll be laughing for hours, so it’s not such a big deal”

Dezel couldn’t help to laugh when hearing Zaveid’s carefree comment.

“Jerk”, he snapped, but the smile was still in his face when he leant forward to capture Zaveid’s lips in an intense grateful kiss. As always, that idiot happy-go-lucky had managed to put him at ease just with his words, “sorry to disappoint you but I’m afraid that you aren’t going to have any motive to laugh. I’m going to do such a fantastic show that I’ll become the most famous Wind Seraph of us”

Zaveid chuckled when hearing Dezel’s now overconfident tone.

“That’s the way a proud Wind Seraph should always talk”, he approved, “so make sure to keep believing in it when you perform and everything will be more than alright”

Dezel nodded, and after hesitating he added.

“I wish we three could do the show”, he couldn’t help some frustration to slip in his words, “I would have really liked to do that show with you”

Zaveid smiled and kissed Dezel again, slowly and languidly but also with intensity, causing Dezel to let out a satisfied sigh while feeling Zaveid’s tongue join his with calm.

“Me too”, Zaveid admitted before adding with a purposely sensual tone, “buuut that also means that after the show you’ll have to find a way to cheer me up…”

Dezel rolled his eyes with patience but he was smiling.

“And let me guess: that cheering you up is going to imply to ‘test this bed resistance’, right?”

Zaveid laughed when hearing Dezel’s ironic tone.

“It has been a while since the last time I heard that expression”, Zaveid kissed Dezel again, “and yes, Dezel-chan, you have guessed right, so you better be prepared because tomorrow after the show…”, Dezel’s breath hitched when Zaveid leant over him to whisper just in his ear while using his sexiest tone, “…I plan to make love to you so passionately that the cries of the audience when you do your show are going to be nothing compared to the way you are going to cry my name”

Dezel felt his member twitching after hearing Zaveid’s erotic words, and in fact he had to take a deep breath not to do something as incredibly stupid as straddling Zaveid’s lap to begin to kiss him senseless.

“Okay, but as you’ve said that’s for tomorrow”, Dezel snapped while forcing Zaveid to lean his head on the pillow again, “so stop trying to tempt me and sleep”

“Kay, okay, I’ll leave my seduction techniques for tomorrow”, Zaveid said with amusement while turning off the bedside lamp, and Dezel automatically adapted to Zaveid’s body when the older Wind Seraph spooned him from behind, letting him enclose his arms around his waist to embrace him tightly, “good night, Dezel ‘of the Green Eyes’. And don’t worry. Tomorrow you’re going to do it great”

Dezel smiled with his eyes closed while settling his hand over Zaveid’s protective arms.

“Good night, Zaveid ‘the Ladykiller’. I love you”

Dezel felt Zaveid smile against the back of his head before depositing a soft kiss on it.

“Me more, Dezel. Me more”

As always, when Dezel fell asleep there was a happy relaxed smile adorning his face, and this time it was not just for Zaveid’s loving words but also because the next day he knew for sure that it was going to be a day that he would never forget.

* * *

“Oh god, oh god, I don’t know if I can do it…”

“Rose, if you don’t calm down I’m going to hit you with my umbrella”

“It’s okay, sweetie, you don’t have to be nervous: just think that it’s going to be like any normal actuation”

“Yeah, with the only difference that there is almost the triple of people that usually comes to visit… _ouch_!”

“Idiot, I told you already that’s not the way to calm someone down”

“But you calmed down yesterday when telling you that…”

“Yeah, well, but that was yesterday, do I look calmed to you _right now_?!”

“ _Sssh_! Lower your voices or people will hear you!”

All the Windriders shut up when hearing Eizen’s warning. They were at the backstage waiting for the people to finish entering and the more time it passed the more nervous everyone was.

Dezel gulped, feeling his heart pound hysterically in his chest. Damn, until some moments ago he had been perfectly fine. In fact, in the whole day he hadn’t been nervous at all. They had spent a rather peaceful morning enjoying the festival this time together with Lafarga until the old man decided to go to check one more time that everything was perfectly  mounted, thing that wasn’t necessary because the contract that they had signed covered all the installation of the stage but Lafarga had always been really meticulous in that aspect. At least that time he didn’t go alone because Symonne offered to accompany him, and since it was the first time during the last two days that the girl had showed real interest, Lafarga gladly accepted.

So, in conclusion, the day has been really relaxed and Dezel had seriously thought that he had his nerves under control. But now that they were about to perform and after seeing the almost frightening quantity of people that had come to see them, he discovered that he had been mistaken. And that all the nervousness that he hadn’t felt during the day had decided to invade him. Damn, he couldn’t even stop trembling, and even if Zaveid, Lailah and Eizen were pretending to be calm it was evident that, although not as much as the youngest ones, they were feeling nervous too. The jumps that they all gave when Lafarga appeared on the backstage confirmed it clearly.

“Hey, what’s with those faces?”, Lafarga said with an amused tone, “don’t tell me that after all the time that you’ve been performing you are nervous now”

Dezel was about to deny Lafarga’s word but Zaveid was faster.

“Yeah, we are”, he admitted, surprising not just Dezel but the rest as well, “but I’m positive that this is going to be the best show that all those people have seen in their entire life so I don’t think that it’s bad to have extra adrenaline”

Lafarga laughed when hearing Zaveid’s words, and that bright sound that contrasted so much with the stressed mood automatically caused everyone to relax at least a little.

“Well said. That’s exactly the spirit. So, Windriders…”, Lafarga situated an arm just in front of him with his palm down, “…can you remind me once more what is our circus motto?”

Dezel was the first one in putting his own hand over Lafarga’s one, then Zaveid followed putting his hand over his, and then one by one the rest of the Windriders did the same until all his hands were joined and that was the moment on which they began to recite at the same time:

_We always have to do our best while performing, without caring about being watched by one person or by thousandths_

“Exactly”, Lafarga approved with an affectionate smile, “and since the most important thing about that motto is to always give your best and I know that you always do, there is nothing to worry about: you’re going to do it great, as you always do”

Everyone nodded, now all their previous nervousness completely vanished.

“It’s a pity that Lord Hedalf hasn’t let Symonne join us…”, Rose commented with a sad tone.

“Well, one more reason to do the show even better than usual”, Zaveid reassured the redhead with a smile, “let’s make sure that we do a performance that she doesn’t forget. So Dezel-chan, make sure to fall into the mat because that way I’m sure that no one will forget the show…”

“Ha ha ha”, Dezel said with sarcasm while the rest began to laugh, but when Zaveid enclosed an arm around his shoulder just before kissing him playfully he immediately responded, although he bit the older Wind Seraph’s bottom lip briefly as a punishment but also because he knew that doing that drove Zaveid a little crazy, and the way his orange eyes glinted when he did that confirmed Dezel that Zaveid hadn’t lied when boasting about what he planned to do to him later that night. Damn, he couldn’t wait to that either but now he had to focus. Now he had to make sure to give his best in his debut. Lafarga had given him that great opportunity and like hell if he was going to waste it.

“Alright, then…”, Lafarga winked at everyone while placing his hand to slowly begin to open the curtain that covered the backstage, letting the enthusiastic murmurs of the waiting audience be even more audible, “let’s go, Windriders: we have a crowd whose heart we have to win”

When Dezel finally walked into the stage and stood just in front of the audience that had already begin to applaud hysterically after seeing the Windriders entrance, he knew that his fear of becoming nervous again had been stupid, because the only feeling that was invading his body at that moment was a warm excitation and emotion for being able to be there that day, together with everyone.

In fact, while waiting to do his combined show with Lafarga, he observed that the performances of his companions looked even better than usual. The way Lailah danced with the rhythm of the music while moving her origami birds just before being caught in fire. Eizen and Edna’s juggling and acrobatic show that made everyone hold their breathings. Rose’s bold but calculated movements while using her daggers to hit standing but also moving targets, that somehow looked to be even more far away than usual. And the admiring cries of the public when Zaveid entered the stage with his always proud nonchalance to make his pendulums look alive with every imposing but also graceful movement of his body. All those performances, which were incredible already, looked even more captivating than usual.

And then, in the blink of an eye, Dezel realized that his turn had come.

“Leave them speechless, Dezel”, Zaveid whispered with an encouraging smile just when he was passing by his side, grasping Dezel’s hand subtly with his own, and although Dezel would have liked to stop Zaveid in his tracks to kiss him he knew that it wouldn’t probably be the most adequate behavior, so he limited to smile at him with all the affection he allowed himself to show so that the rest of the audience didn’t notice it.

“Are you ready?”, Lafarga said when they finally reached the pillars of almost 20 meters that held the tightrope and that allowed them to access to it.

“Yeah, I am”, Dezel said with confidence, and after Lafarga offered him an approving smile they both began to climb their respective pillars.

When Dezel finally reached the top, he took his time to exhale a couple of deep breath to put himself at complete ease, and after seeing Lafarga nodding at him from the other side of the tightrope to indicate him that he was ready, they both began to slowly walk through the tightrope.

As always, the audience remained silent at first with their breathings contained and their eyes opened wide observing in awe the two figures of the Wind Seraphs slowly approaching the center of the high tightrope. However, when Lafarga and Dezel finally extracted at the same time their pendulums and began to move them at unison, admiring mutters and then enthusiastic shouts resonated inside the whole place.

Dezel smiled, unable to hide his happiness when finding himself completely comfortable while making the moves that had taken him seven years to learn, and for the way Lafarga was smiling as well, proud and with emotion, he knew that he had really made it. Finally, he was a true Wind Seraph, and when they finished their show Dezel knew without any doubt that he had just did the best performance of all his life. The way the entire audience stood up on their sites while shouting and applauding at them almost hysterically confirmed it.

But then, just when Dezel was treasuring that day as one of the best of his life, the nightmare began.

The lights that were illuminating the whole place suddenly began to flicker until they all broke at the same time with a short-circuit, causing people’s shouts of joy to be replaced by surprised and scared ones while expressions of fears assaulted the face of the children that until now were observing the show with pleased eyes.

And that was just the start, because just when the rest of the Windriders that were waiting at the backstage came out to try to calm the now frightened audience, a horrifying iron breaking sound invaded the place when one of the sustainers that were keeping the ends of the tightrope attached to the pillars gave in.

By when Lafarga and Dezel realized what was happening it was too late, so when the tightrope fell down a little because of the broken sustainer, the sudden change of balance didn’t give time to the two Wind Seraphs to react in time and they both ended hanging on the tightrope.

“Dezel!! Lafarga!! Hang in there!!”

Dezel gulped loudly when hearing Rose’s scared tone calling them from below, feeling his heart beating frantically in his ears when looking down and seeing everyone looking up at them with concerned eyes. Damn, he hadn’t ever had fear of heights but now he was horribly unaware of the distance that separated Lafarga and him from the floor. A distance, he realized, that could be fatal if any of them…

“Dezel…”, Dezel forced himself to push aside his dark thoughts when hearing Lafarga, and he was somewhat relieved when seeing the man completely calmed despite the precarious situation they were in, “just focus on not releasing the tightrope. Everything will be fine, okay?”

Dezel gulped again and after nodding shakily he dared to throw another glance down. He distinguished Rose looking up at them and crying encouraging words at them while Lailah and Edna indicated people to get out the tent, and although he couldn’t see Zaveid and Eizen at first it didn’t pass much time until he heard the voice of his boyfriend from a blind spot just below Lafarga and him, unusually angry.

“Damn it, why the hell the emergency mat hasn’t inflated automatically?”

“I don’t know but it’s useless to complain now: we’ll have to do it manually”

Dezel frowned confused. Of course, he had forgotten the mat! When they trained there was always a traditional mat placed below the tightrope, but during the real shows the mat that was under them wasn’t inflated but thanks to a sensor placed just at the level of the tightrope it could detect the presence of a person. That way, if a tightrope walker had an accident and fell, the mat would inflate automatically in just split of second allowing the falling person to reach the ground safely.

However, this time it seemed that something has failed with the sensor, because even if he couldn’t see Zaveid and Eizen, he could hear them struggling perfectly.

“Damn, it isn’t working”

Zaveid’s voice seemed frustrated, and that caused Dezel’s chest to clench in apprehension because that wasn’t a good signal. He hadn’t ever seen Zaveid lose his calm with the exception of when his stepfather came to visit, so that must mean that the situation Lafarga and he were in was worse, much _worse_ , that he had initially thought. 

“What’s happening?”, Lafarga asked, and Dezel admired deeply that the man kept being able to speak with calm when he was about to lose his nerves at any moment.

“I-It’s the mat!”, Rose explained with a trembling voice, “we don’t know why but it doesn’t work, not even manually!”

“Edna, go with Lailah and see if you can find something else to cushion the...”

Eizen’s demand was cut when suddenly other of the sustainers broke and the tightrope fell a little more, causing the Windriders (Dezel included) to let out a strangled gasp that mixed with the cries of the people who still remained there despite Lailah’s attempts of making leave the place.

“Fuck, there is no time”, Zaveid suddenly moved, allowing Dezel to see his strained expression, “Lafarga! Dezel! You have to get on the tightrope again to reach the pillar. It’s the only way to…”

“No”

Dezel stared at Lafarga in disbelief, that monosyllabic answer spelled with such a firm tone making everyone become silent during several seconds, until it was Zaveid the one who broke the overwhelming silence with a rude tone.

“What the hell do you mean by that?”

Dezel felt a cold sweat invade his body when Lafarga smiled apologetically. Damn, that was an expression that he didn’t like one bit.

“Sorry, everyone. But there is not time. I’m afraid that there is only a solution”

Dezel’s expression turned horrified when seeing Lafarga release the rope with one of his hands to remain hanging just with the other, the action causing everyone down there to gasp again.

“Wait, no…NO!”, Dezel shouted with desperation when realizing what Lafarga planned to do.

“Oi, what the hell do you think you’re doing?!”, Zaveid practically snarled, the fear on his tone painfully evident.

“Please, Lafarga! There must be any other solution! You…you can’t…”

Rose’s voice failed her when she began to cry. Edna, who was next to the redhead, tried to speak in her place but she only managed to let out a sob while beginning to cry silently as well, so at the end it was Lailah the one who spoke, her voice faltering.

“Lafarga, please, don’t do anything reckless. You two still can do it. You are not so far away from the pillar so maybe if you move slowly…”

“It’s useless”

It was Eizen who had spoken, and even if his tone had sounded extremely composed his eyes were showing deep sadness.

“Lafarga is right. By when we manage to find something to soften the falling it will be too late. The tightrope won’t sustain both of their weights. The only solution is…”

Eizen didn’t need to finish the sentence because just at that moment the tightrope came even looser again, as if it was confirming his terrible words.

“Damn it…”, Dezel exhaled while looking around in a useless attempt to find something that could liberate them from that nightmare,  “it must be something that we can do. Something that…”

“Dezel…”, Lafarga’s tender but at the same time firm tone made a lump appear on Dezel’s throat, “...it’s no other way. The tightrope can’t sustain both of us like this and we can’t move because it would break. The only way is to release some weight. And I’m afraid that there’s only one way to do it”

“But you’ll die!!”, Dezel shouted, unable to hold back the tears anymore, “l-look, we have just to wait a little longer until the rest brings something to reduce the impact so if we just…”

Another sustainer gave in, the metallic sound interrupting what Dezel was saying.

“Damn it…”, Zaveid growled with gritted teeth, “…damn it, is there really nothing that we can do…?”

“Lafarga…”, Edna muttered. Rose kept sobbing nonstop and Lailah and Eizen interchanged a look full of impotence.

“There is not time, Dezel”, Lafarga reasoned, “We’ll both die if we don’t do something _now_ and I’m not letting any of my children die. So…”

Lafarga looked down alternatively at everyone with a calm smile on his features. A smile that showed that he had just accepted his fate with no regrets.

“Zaveid…Lailah…Eizen…Edna…Rose…Dezel: you don’t know how happy I am for having been able to see you grow up until becoming the great men and women that you are now. I’m really proud of you and I feel blessed for having been able to act as a parent to you all. I wish we could spend more time together but I’m afraid that it isn’t possible”

Lafarga turned his head to fix his eyes on Dezel while using his free hand to caress Dezel’s cheek with affection, removing some of the tears that kept falling nonstop from his face.

No. It was impossible. It couldn’t be happening. He had to be dreaming. That was it. It _had_ to be a dream. A damn horrible dream because it wasn’t possible that Lafarga was going to…

“Take care from now on, Dezel. And you too, my little Windriders”, Lafarga looked down again, his grey eyes shining with emotion and tenderness, “I love you all”

And then, Lafarga released the rope. And Dezel felt how the entire world around him froze except the image of Lafarga falling in almost slow motion, his always gentle smile not leaving his affable factions for even a single second. Not even when his body finally reached the ground. Not even when his life escaped from his body.

Dezel stared down, unable to act, unable to hear the words of his companions who urged him to begin to move towards the pillar. Unable to assimilate that Lafarga, the man who had raised him, who had shown him all the wonderful things of working on a circus, who had loved him since the first moment with no conditions, who had been his friend, his master, his parent...had just died. And that he hadn’t been able to do anything to prevent it.

“Dezel!!”, it was Zaveid the one who was shouting his name with all his might, “Dezel, can you hear me?! You have to move _now_!”

“Dezel, sweetheart, move, you’re really close!”, Lailah exclaimed.

“W-why isn’t he moving?!”, Rose practically shouted in an hysterical tone.

“I think he is paralyzed”, Eizen replied.

They shouted again trying to make Dezel react, but their voices couldn’t reach the younger Wind Seraph, who kept staring at the place where Lafarga had fallen while the terrible reality of what had just happened resounded on his head as a horrible inner melody: _Lafarga is dead. Lafarga is dead.  Lafarga is dead_ …

“Okay, enough. I’ll go to take him”

“Wait, Zaveid!”, Lailah exclaimed when seeing Zaveid with the clear intention of climbing one of the pillars, “you can’t do that. The pillar is too unstable and it won’t be able to sustain your weight…”

“Lailah is right”, Eizen reasoned, and just when Zaveid was opening his mouth to protest the blonde spoke again, his tone full of determination, “I’ll go. I’m lighter than you”

“Brother!”, Edna’s turquoise eyes shined in fair when Eizen began to climb the pillar without waiting any second longer.

“Eizen…”, Lailah called, trying to show calm on Edna’s behalf even if her expression was horribly scared.

“It’s okay”, Eizen said with a soothing smile, “I’m the best acrobat around here, remember?”

“Wait, take my pendulum”, Zaveid said, reaching to the pocket of his trousers to take the object and throwing it to Eizen, who caught it in the air easily, “maybe this makes him react”

At any other moment, Eizen would have managed to reach the top of the pillar in less than ten seconds, but he couldn’t risk to climb it too hurriedly because the iron crash sounds that were invading the room indicated them how little time they had until the rest of the sustainers broke.

Consequently, it took Eizen almost a complete minute to reach half of the pillar, where he stopped to try to call Dezel again.

“Dezel! Dezel, can you hear us?!”

Again, Dezel didn’t answer, so Eizen grabbed the pendulum that Zaveid had lent him and threw it up trying to make it pass over the tightrope so it remained hanging just in front of Dezel unfocused eyes.

It took him a couple of attempts but at the end he managed to do it, and as Zaveid had guessed when seeing that object that he knew so well just in front of him Dezel woke up from his trance and looked down to find everyone looking up at him with strained and concerned expressions.

“Dezel!”, Zaveid shouted in relief when finally seeing Dezel’s react , “Dezel, Eizen is there to help you, okay? But you need to move a little towards the pillar or he won’t be able to reach you”

Even if Dezel was initially confused, he recovered enough to nod and do as Zaveid had indicated, beginning to move slowly, focusing on not looking at the lifeless figure of Lafarga down there and pushing back the tears that kept falling from his reddened eyes. He would have time to cry later but right then they needed to get out from there before someone else ended hurt because of him.

“Come on Dezel…”, Lailah exhaled, her hands interlacing as if she was praying, “come one, you are almost there”

“Yeah, keep going like that”, Zaveid encouraged while Dezel kept moving slowly but without pause, “you’re doing it great, Dezel, just a little more”

But Dezel didn’t make it.

Because at that moment the final sustainer of the other side gave in and the opposite end of the tightrope finally ceded, causing Dezel to swing towards the pillar on which Eizen was waiting for him, and since the Wind Seraph had enough with managing not to release the rather slippery rope, he couldn’t avoid the hard impact against the pillar that made him lose his consciousness almost instantly when the side of his head was hit with force.

However, Dezel was able to hear everyone calling his name and Eizen’s one while beginning to fall to his imminent death just before feeling something hard impact against him. Something that resulted to be ‘someone’ who enclosed his arms protectively around his body just before Dezel finally fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

When Dezel recovered his consciousness he was on a bed. He opened his eyes, still dazed, and he was surprised when the darkness that had invaded him just before fainting kept surrounding him, stopping him from seeing anything of his surroundings.

“He is alright…he is alright…”

Dezel almost jumped when hearing Rose’s trembling voice just next to him but he hadn’t time to say anything because at that moment a big figure that could just belong to Zaveid leant over him to deposit a kiss on his forehead.

“Damn it…”, Zaveid let out a relieved sigh, “damn it, for a moment we thought that we had lost you as well”

Dezel blinked a couple of times with force, trying to get used to the extremely dark room to at least pinpoint the faces of Zaveid and Rose without any result.

“Are you hurt somewhere?”, Zaveid asked again with a worried tone, “We’ve called a doctor and when he finishes checking Eizen he will come to see you”

Dezel frowned. Eizen? Why did the doctor have to check Eizen? And damn, why the hell was the room so damn dark?

“Dezel?”, Rose inquired with concern when seeing Dezel blink his eyes forcibly again while looking around nervously.

“Yeah, I’m fine but why is everything so dark? Can’t you turn the lights on first, please?”

Dezel’s tone came more impatient that he would have liked but he couldn’t help it.  Not being able to see was making him extremely uncomfortable, especially when the last image that he had vivid on his mind was Lafarga falling from the tightrope.

“Umh…Dezel…”, Rose whispered, “the lights are already on”

After Rose spelled those words, a tense silence fell on the room and Dezel felt a sticky cold sensation settling on his body.

“Dezel…”, the named one turned his face towards the place where he had heard Zaveid’s voice, “can’t you see us?”

Dezel gulped and shook his head shakily, and after another silence Zaveid spoke.

“Don’t worry, Dezel-chan”, he said with a confident tone, “I’ve read that it’s pretty normal that people who have suffered from a big hit lose momentarily their vision, but it’s just temporal”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that too”, Rose added immediately, “so don’t worry, you’ll be fine in no time”

Dezel nodded and let Zaveid help him to incorporate on a sitting position on the bed, more relieved after hearing Rose and – especially – Zaveid’s reassuring tone, although if he had been able to see he would have detected that the expressions that both Windriders had at that moment weren’t as optimistic as their words.

“So…”, Dezel gulped, trying to summon up the courage to make the question whose answer he already knew, “…so Lafarga is…”

He didn’t need to see to know the answer. When Zaveid’s reaction was to hug him closely and tightly, Dezel knew that his hope of having misinterpreted something when being the tightrope had been stupid. He hadn’t misinterpreted anything.

Lafarga had died. Or better said, he had sacrificed himself to save _him_.

“I’m sorry, Dezel”, Zaveid whispered against his hair with a frustrated voice, incrementing the grip of his embrace, “I’m really sorry. I couldn’t do anything”

Dezel felt Rose cling onto him from behind to lean her forehead against his back, and for the way her thin body was trembling he guessed that she was crying. Dezel gulped, trying to find something to say. Like he was the one who was sorry. Like he was the one at fault for Lafarga’s death. But at the end the only thing that he was able to exhale was a strangled gasp, so he stopped trying to do anything that wasn’t enclosing his arms around Zaveid’s body to sob desperately against the man’s chest.

Not even half a minute had passed when someone knocked at the door and without waiting for an answer Lailah entered the room. She looked extremely pale and her eyes were incredibly red, as if she had been crying for quite a lot time before reuniting with them.

“Oh, thank goodness”, Lailah exhaled with a trembling voice full of relief while approaching the bed to hug Dezel as well, “thank goodness that you are alright”

Dezel was about to say that he wasn’t completely fine because he couldn’t see yet but somehow in the way Lailah was hugging at him with much more force than she usually used to use told him that it wasn’t the moment to mention that.

“Where is Edna?”, Zaveid asked then, “and Symonne? I haven’t seen her since the function began”

“Edna is still with the doctor”, Lailah explained, releasing Dezel, “and I don’t know where Symonne is”

“So…”, Rose voice sounded hesitant, almost scared, “what has the doctor said?”

Dezel frowned. The doctor…? Oh yes, Zaveid had mentioned something about that.

“Yeah, where is Eizen? Why the doctor has gone to check him?”

There was a silence so long and thick that Dezel felt his chest tightening in a really unpleasant way.

“What happens?”, Dezel asked again, his voice strained because of the worry because he somewhat knew that even more bad news were about to come.

“Dezel…”, it was Zaveid the one who spoke, “do you remember what happened when the tightrope broke and you fell?”

Dezel frowned, trying to remember.

“I just remember the hit on my head and that I began to fade so I released the rope. And then while I was falling I think that I crashed against something more because…”

Dezel froze and shut up, his throat suddenly dry.

No, it couldn’t be…

“Wait…”, Dezel’s voice was almost a whisper, “…wait, don’t tell me…”

After taking a deep breath Lailah was the one who answered, her voice trying to sound firm without much success.

“When you began to fall, Eizen had already climbed half of the pillar. He managed to grab your arm in the air but his precarious position made impossible to hold both of your weights. For that reason he…”, Lailah cleared her throat before continuing with a voice that trembled slightly, “…he ended falling together with you, but at the last second he managed to grab you and reverse your positions so he received most part of the impact of the falling”

Dezel began to breath heavily, his heart beating at an impossible rate. No. No no no, not again, _not again_!

“And how is he?”, he practically shouted, “he is fine, right?! He is…”

“Yes, he is alive”, Dezel was about let out a relieved sigh but then Lailah kept talking, “but, because of the impact, he has fallen into a coma”

Dezel felt his heart crack for second time that day.

“And is there any possibility that he recovers?”, Zaveid asked with a tone that tried to sound neutral but the tension on his body was evident, the same way that the way Rose’s body was shaking next to him indicated him that she was crying again,

“The good news is that his vital functions are stable. But…”, Lailah gulped and tried to speak again, his voice now barely audible, “…but the doctor has said that for now he can’t assure that he…that he…”

Lailah didn’t manage to complete the sentence when new tears began to fall from her eyes.

Dezel felt Rose standing up from the bed to jump into Lailah’s arms to hug her but he couldn’t do anything but staring with blind eyes at the darkness in front of him while his breath became even more uneven, his head beginning to spin at an incredible rate.

It couldn’t be possible. It couldn’t be real. Lafarga had died to save him, and now Eizen was in a coma for the same reason.

It was all his fault. He was the culprit. He was a murderer.

“Dezel?”, Zaveid’s tone sounded worried, “oi, Dezel, are you alright?”

Dezel wasn’t able to respond, his breathing becoming so fast that at some point he began to gasp for air, finding himself unable to breath.

“Damn, he is having an anxiety attack: Rose, call the doctor!”

“Dezel”, Lailah approached the bed as well, “Dezel, can you hear us?! Please, you have to calm down!”

However, Zaveid and Lailah’s attempts to calm Dezel down were useless. They had to wait until the doctor went to the caravan to force Dezel into a sleep with a tranquilizer. A sleep rippled with nightmares of his master and one of his best friends falling over and over again into an impenetrable darkness.

* * *

After the doctor examined Dezel, he decided to put him into an induced coma during three days, since he considered that because of the trauma that Dezel had experienced, it would be good that he rested to recover completely.

During that time, Eizen was momentarily moved to the hospital at Ladylake, and since Lailah and Zaveid had to take care of Lafarga’s funeral and of the paperwork that implied the death of the chief of the circus, Edna decided to be making company to her brother and Rose remained in the improvised camp that they had established out of the town to take care of Dezel. About Symonne, they hadn’t seen her again since the incident.

“Well…”, Zaveid exhaled while rubbing his eyes over the table where Lailah and him were revising a bunch of papers related to the circus maintenance, “…it seems that finally we have managed to leave everything settled.

“Yes, although we still have to receive the report of the installation”

Lailah began to organize the papers methodically while Zaveid crossed his arms over his chest with a confused expression.

“I seriously don’t know how it happened. I mean, I’m sure Lafarga went to check personally that everything was fine so how…?”

Just at that moment, a man whose uniform indicated that he was one of the men of Lady Maltran entered the main tent with a closed envelope in his hands.

“Good afternoon”, the man said while approaching the table, “Lady Maltran had just asked me to deliver this to you. It’s the report that you asked about the installation”

Without waiting for an answer, the man disappeared with a slight faster pace that he had used to enter, as if he had really hurry to leave the tent.

“I didn’t know that I looked so scary”, Zaveid commented with irony, trying to lighten a little the tension that had settled, “do you want to read it first?”

“It’s okay”, Lailah, said her eyes fixed with intensity on Zaveid while the Wind Seraph finally opened the envelope.

During the almost first minute Zaveid read the report silently, since it was just a detailed description about the assembly method and there wasn’t anything weird on it.

However, when he began to read the back of the paper Zaveid’s eyes opened wide, his expression turning pale while the grip on the paper became harder.

“What happens?”, Lailah asked immediately when seeing Zaveid change of reaction, “Zaveid?”, she added when seeing that the Wind Seraph didn’t react.

“Sorry. Umh…”, Zaveid gulped, frowning in utter confusion, “according to the report after checking the lights, the emergency mat and the sustainers of the tightrope, it’s really probable that someone purposely sabotaged them so that they failed”

An expression full of stupor appeared on Lailah’s face.

“What?”, she muttered before fixing her confused eyes on Zaveid, “but…but that can’t be. It has no sense at all: who would want to manipulate them?”

Zaveid gulped while re-reading the report, trying to find a meaning in the words that were written there. Lailah was right. Lafarga himself had checked that everything was right. There was no way that he overlooked something as important as a broken mat and some broken sustainers. The lights maybe, but not all the rest. So how…?”

“Good afternoon”

At moment a familiar overconfident voice sounded just at the entrance of the tent, and Zaveid and Lailah’s stupor grew even more when finding Lord Hedalf standing there.

“Lord Hedalf?”, Lailah asked with surprise.

“We didn’t know that you were in Ladylake”, Zaveid commented.

“Oh, I wasn’t. But after hearing the news I had to come. What a terrible loss, you have my most sincere condolences”

Lailah and Zaveid frowned at the same time, in tension, because Lord Hedalf’s words clearly contrasted with the wide satisfied smile that was adorning his sharp features, which made him look like a wild lion more than ever.

“However…”, Lord Hedalf continued, “I can’t say that I didn’t warn you. I insisted you several times that an association with me would be the best option. And that it was an offer that you shouldn’t reject. So if you had been clever…”, Lord Hedalf’s smile grew even more, “…you would have deduced that going against my desires was going to bring bad consequences”

After a couple of seconds on which both Windriders remained staring at Hedalf in disbelief after hearing the implications of his words, Zaveid stood up as fast as lightning and walked towards Hedalf, his face contorted in rage.

“Wait, Zaveid!”

Lailah reached Zaveid and grabbed him from behind with force, managing to somehow stop the furious man’s advances.

“Zaveid…”, Lailah implored, feeling herself dragged forward when Zaveid kept walking despite she was using all her forces to prevent him from doing so, “Zaveid, please, stop…”

“Oh, and I will stop. After I kill this miserable”, Zaveid hissed in a threatening tone. He didn’t understand everything yet but a thing was clear: Hedalf was involved in Lafarga’s death and Eizen and Dezel’s state, so he wasn’t going to let him keep living one second longer.

“You should listen to the lady, Zaveid ‘the Lady Killer’”, Hedalf commented with a completely impassible tone, as if he hadn’t the least fear of Zaveid killing aura, “I warn you that I have quite influence in Ladylake. You really don’t want to do something as stupid as hurting me, much less to kill me”

“Zaveid, think about Dezel”, when hearing that name, Zaveid immediately stopped in his tracks, although his hands kept being turned into fists and were trembling because of the effort of not using them on Hedalf.

“And think about Rose”, Lailah continued, “and about Edna. And about me. If you kill him now, even if he deserves it, you’ll be send to jail, and I’m not going to allow that. We’ve already lost Lafarga, and Eizen’s condition is uncertain. So please”, Lailah embraced Zaveid’s even more tightly, “please, don’t make us lose you as well”

After some tense seconds, Zaveid close his eyes and after exhaling a long sigh he nodded, indicating Lailah that it was fine and that, for now, he wasn’t going to kill anyone.

“Good decision, Zaveid ‘the Ladykiller’”, Lord Hedalf approved, “I see that despite your appearance you are a man who can come to his senses. And now that we are all calmed again why don’t you let me explain the reason of my visit?”

“No, the first thing that you are going to explain is why our master and father had to die, why Dezel has been about to die as well and why my fiancé has ended in a coma”, Lailah demanded, her tone still calm but full of a quiet anger that was even more fearsome that Zaveid’s previous outburst, “we want to know what we have done according to you to deserve such terrible things. You owe us that at least”

Lord Hedalf sighed softly and smiled softly, as if he was pitying them.

“The answer is simple, Windriders. You have a power in your hands that you don’t know to fully appreciate nor use. The power of capturing the heart of the people with your performances. The power of entertain them, of making them forget how the real world is. And to be able to make people feel that way can be extremely useful. Especially for a guy like me that need the people’s support and taxes to keep my lands on float”

“So that’s why you wanted to associate with us”, Zaveid said with a tone full of disdain, “to assure the entertainment that we provide to make your shitty business more profitable”

“Well, I wouldn’t have phrased it that way but yes, that was the main reason”, Hedalf admitted, “however, there was another secondary one and it is that I’m afraid to admit that one of my defects is that I really enjoy fame…”

“Yeah, you’re a presumptuous bastard. We’ve got that”

“…and consequently…”, Hedalf continued ignoring completely Zaveid’s comment, “…I don’t like very much when people around begins to speak about other people more than about me. And I’m afraid that again, Windriders, you have way more fame that you know you have. Even the king of Ladylake is a fan of yours. And that is something that any influent people like me craves to have. You know, I really liked Lafarga…”

“Don’t you dare to mention that name…”, Zaveid hissed in a low tone, causing Lailah to grab him arm again in order to prevent him to lose control.

“…I really admired his convictions and his deep sense of duty towards you. He was a really admirable man”, Hedalf tone’s sounded sincere, and that only made everything even worse, “so believe me when I say that I would have really liked that things were different. And about your fiancé…”, Hedalf turned to look at Lailah, “…I’m really sorry to admit that he was a collateral damage. It didn’t occur to me that he was going to play the hero to save that kid, so what happened to him was not my intention at all”

“And what about Dezel?”, Zaveid practically snarled, “he was also a collateral damage?”

Hedalf sighed.

“No, that was another unexpected development. Because the truth is…”, Hedalf fixed his eyes on Zaveid again, “…that I was expecting that it was you the one who was up there with Lafarga. That way I would have made sure that the two main pillars of the Wind Seraphs would be… _inactive_. Because let’s speak clear: one of the reasons of the incredible fame of the Windriders is your tightrope show. If that show disappears, your fame won’t be as spectacular. No offense intended”, Hedalf added looking at Lailah again, “your origami show is really fantastic. I would really want to know how you manage to make them catch fire without getting hurt”

“Oh, if you are that curious I can give you a demonstration. Although I don’t guarantee that you don’t end hurt and burning to death with my most powerful flames”

Lord Hedalf chuckled when hearing Lailah use those sharp and hateful words with such calm.

“In that case I prefer that it remains as a mystery”, he said with a smile, “and now that I have answered your questions, my lady, let me tell you the reason of my visit: I want to offer you again the possibility of an association”

Lailah and Zaveid stared at Hedalf in disbelief.

“You’re kidding, right?”

Hedalf laughed widely when hearing Zaveid’s incredulous tone.

“No, I’m not. After all I made the previous offer to Lafarga but now I’m making it to you”

“Do you really think that we are going to accept your offer after all you’ve done to us?”, Lailah said with astonishment.

“Think about the status of your circus: you have lost two of your best performers, so that leaves you with a circus of just two adults and three kids. Besides, maybe you don’t know it but maintaining someone in a coma is always expensive. Do you think that you are going to be able to keep with all the people that you have hired _and_ to pay for your friend’s treatment? I can assure you that an association with me would be the best option…”

“Associating with you is not even an option”, Lailah immediately replied, “we are never going to associate with you. Never” 

Hedalf exhaled a resigned sigh.

“In that case you don’t leave me any option”, he said extracting from his pocket a paper, “do you know what this is?”

The Windriders didn’t answer so Hedalf continued.

“It’s the report of the doctor that has gone to check on Dezel ‘of the Green Eyes’. Oh, don’t put such surprised expressions. You should know that I have enough influence to obtain a simple medical report. Well, the thing is that according to the doctor, it seems that the kid hasn’t recovered his eyesight yet…”

“That’s temporal”, Zaveid interrupted him with a determined voice, but his tense body said the contrary, “the doctor says that he can eventually recover and…”

“Yes, but the thing is that right now he is blind”, Hedalf continued, and this time his smile had unmistakable cruelty in it, “and I’m afraid that according to the license of the circus that you signed when you became one, all the performers have to be in perfect condition or otherwise they will have to resign”

Zaveid’s hands turned into fists again.

“Bastard...”, he said with his tone full of anger, “so if we don’t join you, you’ll make the medical report public to expel Dezel”

Hedalf’s smile widened.

“It’s a pleasure to speak with people who understands everything so fast”, he said with an insulting approving tone, “so I’ll ask you one more time, Windriders: would you join me?”

There was a silence in which the Windriders just looked at each other, and when Zaveid finally answered his tone showed resolve.

“No, we aren’t going to join you”, Zaveid said with a cutting tone, but just when Hedalf was going to speak he continued, “but in exchange, I’ll leave the Windriders”

“Zaveid!”, Lailah exclaimed, but Zaveid ignored her and kept talking.

“You yourself had said before that you wanted to get rid of Lafarga and me because we were the cause of the Windriders fame. For that reason you’ve come here to offer us another association, right? Because I am alive. Well, in that case I resign. I won’t be a Wind Seraph anymore, nor a Windrider either. That way you will be at ease that our circus isn’t famous enough to suppose a threat to you”, Zaveid’s tone was incredibly calm despite the implications of what he was saying, “in exchange, you will turn a blind eye to that report that says that Dezel is impaired. After all, if Dezel is really blind he won’t suppose any problem for you, right?”

“Zaveid, please…”, Lailah stared at Zaveid with begging eyes, “…before taking such a decision it wouldn’t be better if…?”

“Alright, I accept”, Hedalf’s satisfied words made Lailah close her eyes in defeat and sadness, “I would still prefer an association but I must admit that your proposal is really reasonable. Indeed, since you aren’t going to perform anymore I could search a job for you in my lands… ”

Hedalf’s words were cut when Zaveid approached him to grab him by the front of his coat, and this time not even Lailah stopped him. She was too busy biting her bottom lip in an attempt to prevent its trembling.

“Just make sure that you leave my family alone. Because if I discover while I’m away that you have hurt him in any way, I can assure you that I’ll go after you, without caring about what could happen to me. And believe me: you really don’t want that”  

Zaveid released Hedalf with a rude shove, and this time Hedalf couldn’t suppress a gulp when hearing Zaveid’s threatening tone. And because something in the way Zaveid’s eyes were shining with a killing intent told Hedalf that the now ex Wind Seraph wasn’t lying.

“I’ll keep my word”, Hedalf’s tone sounded convincingly firm, “I won’t do anything with that report. In fact, to prove you how reasonable I am, I’ll just ask you to be out of the circus at least five years. After that time, you can come back if you wish”

“And why is the reason for such generosity?”, Lailah asked with sarcasm.

“Oh, let’s just say that after that time I’m pretty sure that no circus will be able to rival my fame”, he said with a confident tone, “and now, I’m afraid that I have to leave. I’m a busy man and I have several matters to attend”

“One last thing”, Zaveid said just when Hedalf was about to leave the tent, “how did you do it?”

“Excuse me?”, Hedalf raised a confused eyebrow.

“How did you manage to manipulate the installation?”, Zaveid clarified, “because we know that Lafarga checked everything so how?”

Hedalf looked at them for a moment before laughing.

“So you really don’t know yet?”, Hedalf chuckled, “well, in that case why don’t she explain it to you?”

Zaveid and Lailah were about to ask how did he mean with ‘she’ but it wasn’t necessary because at that moment a new figure appeared on the tent. A figure that caused Lailah and Zaveid to open their eyes at their maximum.

“Symonne?”, Lailah exhaled with a whisper.

“Symonne-chan?”, Zaveid repeated in disbelief.

To Lailah and Zaveid’s surprised, the girl clicked her tongue while averting her eyes.

“Please, can you stop saying my name with such lame voices? It’s going to make me puke”

Lailah and Zaveid’s eyes opened even wider.

“You…”, Lailah began, “you can speak…”

Hedalf began to laugh again when hearing Lailah’s confused words.

“Yes, she can. However, I instruct her no to because it would be very evident that she was older than sixteen”, Hedalf explained, “besides, it is well known the fame of the Windriders of adopting children with difficult pasts, so making her act as a shy girl with problems of interaction would make you accept her more easily. Besides, that way you wouldn’t consider strange that she disappeared from time to time. That was really convenient so she could send me her reports”

“So it was you the one who manipulated the installation. For that reason you insisted so much on accompanying Lafarga. So that you could manipulate everything without him to suspect you”, Zaveid said, his astonished tone turning in a knowing one.

“Why, Symonne?”, Lailah whispered, her tone sounding confused and hurt, “I know that Hedalf is your father but Lafarga loved you as his own daughter even if the little time you remained with us so why? Didn’t you feel anything about him? About us?”

“ _No, I didn’t_!”, Symonne practically shouted, “I was only following Hedalf’s orders, so no, for me it did mean nothing to be with you. _Nothing_. It was just a job. That’s all. Besides, it was…”, Symonne averted her eyes to the side and gulped, her voice coming out a little trembling, “…it was that old man’s fault for trusting me so much. Why did he have to be such a fool?”

Hedalf chuckled.

“Well, actually I’m not his real father: I just adopted her when she was little and from then on she has been serving me very faithfully. However, I have to praise you once more, Windriders because it’s the first time that my little Symonne has hesitated in her orders”

“Lord Hedalf!”, Symonne’s eyes turned to look at Hedalf with fear, “that isn’t true. I’ve never dared to doubt your orders. I just…”

Symonne’s words stopped abruptly when Hedalf hit her with such force that the girl fell into the ground, and even after knowing Symonne’s true identity Lailah couldn’t help to approach the girl to help her to stand up.

“Are you alright?”

“ _Don’t touch me_!”, the girl snarled, hitting Lailah’s hand away while standing up on her own, “stop trying playing to be my friend. I don’t need that. I just need Lord Hedalf”

Hedalf chuckled again while Lailah and Zaveid stared at Symonne with eyes full of sadness. 

“Well, you have your answer Zaveid ‘the Ladykiller’”, Hedalf said with a smile, “although since you are not going to be a performer anymore I suppose that calling you for that appellative is a little useless now”

Again, Hedalf turned to leave this time accompanied by Symonne, but this time it was Lailah the one who stopped them.

“Wait a moment”, Lailah grabbed a paper full of annotations and offered it to Symonne, “this is for you?”

The girl frowned her eyebrows with suspicion.

“What is that?”

To the girl’s surprise, Lailah grabbed her hand and deposited the paper on it.

“These are the alias that Lafarga was thinking for you in case you decided to join us”, Symonne’s eyes opened wide in disbelief, “he was really looking forward that to happen. I think that you should know it”

Symonne gulped again before clicking her tongue.

“As I’ve said, what a fool man”

Symonne spoke with disdain, but even if she wrinkled the paper she didn’t throw it away. She kept it in one of her tiny pockets of the almost nonexistent suit that she was wearing before turning around rudely, as if she was trying to hide her expression from the rest.

“Goodbye, Windriders”, Hedalf said with a smile, “as always, it’s a pleasure to make deals with you”

After Hedalf and Symonne left, Lailah and Zaveid remained silent for several moments until he was the one in breaking the silence.

“Okay, I’ll go to take my things”

“What?! Don’t tell me that you are planning to leave now! Dezel hasn’t even woken up and…”

Zaveid put his index and middle fingers over Lailah’s mouth softly, effectively making the girl stop talking,

“Rose is going to hear you if you speak so loud”, Zaveid reproached.

“Don’t try to avoid this discussion: she has gone to buy some things at the city so there’s no way that she can hear me right now”, Lailah protested half-closing her eyes and causing Zaveid to chuckle.

“Sorry, Lailah-chan, but there is nothing to discuss”, Zaveid said with a resigned smile, “I have to go. And about what you’ve said about Dezel not having woken up…”, Zaveid gulped, “…that’s precisely the reason for which I’m leaving now. If I wait for him to wake up and he discovers what I’m planning to do, there is no way that he allows it. He will try to follow me and I can’t let that happen”

Lailah opened her mouth to protest but at the last time she closed it with a defeated sigh.

“So you are going to leave without telling him anything?”, Lailah said with a trembling voice, “you know that it will break his heart, right?”

Zaveid nodded, but despite the pain in his eyes his tone when speaking had no doubt on it.

“Yes, I know, the same way it’s breaking mine. But it’s the only option if we don’t want to destroy his future as a performer. And I’m sure that that will break his heart even more”

“I’m not so sure about that”, Lailah rubbed her forehead while closing her eyes, before speaking again, “so I suppose that I can’t say him anything”

“No, you can’t”, Zaveid said with tenderness, removing with his thumb the tears that had begun to fall from Lailah’s closed eyes, “the same way that you can’t tell Rose anything because she will do exactly the same”

“Alright, but please, tell Edna at least”, Lailah practically implored, grabbing Zaveid’s hands between her own, “after all she already said that she didn’t plan to come to the circus in a while since she preferred to  take care of Eizen. At least like that, you wouldn’t be completely alone”

Zaveid chuckled and hugged Lailah tightly.

“I will. And I’m sorry. I know that you would prefer to take care of Eizen too but those two are going to need you more than ever”

“Eizen is in good hands”, Lailah assured, “And Dezel and Rose will be under my care so they will be fine as well. The only thing that bothers me is…”, Lailah buried her head on the crook of Zaveid’s neck, “…what the hell am I going to tell Dezel when he asks me about you?”

Zaveid laughed when hearing Lailah’s curse, but it was a rather empty laugh compared to the ones he used to exhale.

“Just pretend not to know anything”

“And are you really sure that I can’t at least tell him that you will come back in five years?”

“Lailah, if you tell him that he will suspect”, Zaveid reasoned while caressing the girl’s back with tenderness.

“I know, but It’s just so unfair…”, she muttered with frustration.

 Zaveid just smiled resignedly.

“Yes, it is. But this is how things are”

Lailah exhaled a deep breath before nodding, and after remaining embracing her friend for some more seconds he finally released her.

“Okay, I better go before Rose comes back”, Zaveid said, “can I borrow a couple of pants from Eizen? I would prefer not to make a lot of noise while searching for them in our caravan”

“Yes, and a couple of shirts and jerseys in case you finally decide to look  presentable again wouldn’t be bad either”, Lailah said with a patient tone that caused Zaveid to chuckle.

“Okay, take this”, Lailah said offering Zaveid a bag with much more things than the pants that the man had requested, “and also this”

Zaveid took with confusion the envelope that Lailah was offering him, and when seeing that it contained a nice quantity of money he immediately returned it to the girl.

“Nop, I don’t want this”

“Zaveid, please, don’t discuss and take it”

“Look, I’m not dumb: that’s the money that you and Eizen have been saving up for the wedding”

“A wedding that I’m afraid is not going to take place for now, so shut up already and take it. Eizen would have done the same”

“Lailah, I’m not taking it. If you want to use that money save it for the circus or for Eizen’s treatment, but don't waste it on me. Don’t worry. I’ll manage”

Laiah exhaled a deep sigh.

“At least take just this”, she insisted, taking some bills, “this will pay your stance in a not-very-good inn for some days”

It was Zaveid’s turn to exhale a sigh.

“Okay. Damn, you sure are stubborn”

“Look who is talking”, Lailah replied with a smile, and then after a moment of silence she grabbed his face between her hands to deposit a kiss on his cheek, “please, take care. And make sure to come back in five years or I’ll personally drag you back”

Zaveid smiled and hugged Lailah again with force.

“Don’t worry, I will. You just worry to take care of the kids, and make sure that when I come back we have an awesome circus to show that bastard that no one can beat the Windriders”

Lailah smiled as well before finally letting Zaveid go.

“Don’t worry, I will”, she said, “and now at least go to say Dezel goodbye. It doesn’t matter if he is still sleeping: do it or you’ll regret it”

Zaveid took a deep breath and nodded, and after Lailah checked for third time that he had all the necessary he walked towards his own caravan.

Zaveid entered noiselessly and he was relieved when seeing that Dezel kept being in a deep sleep. He approached the bed and remained looking at the sleeping figure without saying anything, making sure to burn with fire into his memory every single feature, although he knew it was not necessary. It was just an excuse to look in silence his lover when knowing that he wasn’t going to be able to see him in five years.

There were a lot of things that he wanted to tell Dezel. Things like that he didn’t want to leave. That he wanted to be there to dry his tears during the hard moments that were about to come. To keep laughing with him. To keep training with him until ending exhausted to get gradually better together. To keep teasing him to see him put that funny sulking expression that he adored. To keep spending his nights with him, sleeping or making love, it didn’t matter, but knowing that when he woke up Dezel would be there, clinging onto him during the cold nights and protesting during the warm ones because Zaveid’s body was too suffocating. That he wanted to spend the rest of his life with him.

Yeah, there were a lot of things that he wanted to tell him. But he couldn’t. And he knew that precisely for that, probably when he came back their relationship wouldn’t be the same. And that probably after all that time, after leaving without saying anything, Dezel would rightly hate him. And damn, that hurt. More than anything that he had experienced. But it was necessary. And if that was the price that he had to pay to guarantee Dezel’s future, like hell if he wasn’t going to pay it willingly and with no regrets.

After taking another deep breath, Zaveid dared to lean over Dezel to deposit a tender kiss on his forehead. Dezel frowned briefly but he almost immediately relaxed again, so Zaveid dared to tempt his luck by depositing a soft peck on the lips of his sleeping lover. After all, he didn’t know when was going to be the next time that he would be able to do it.

“I love you, Dezel ‘of the Green Eyes’”, Zaveid whispered, “I promise you that I’ll come back. You have my word. And I’ll never break my promises”

* * *

When Dezel opened his eyes the darkness that had invaded him when he suffered his anxiety attack kept being there. Surrounding him. Embracing him.

“You are finally awake!”

Dezel’s breath left his lungs when Rose practically jumped over his bed to hug him.

“How are you? Can you see already?”

Dezel gulped and shook his head, missing the way Rose’s face turned worried just before speaking again with a reassuring tone that sounded just a little forced.

“W-Well, the doctor says that it’s not something to worry about yet and that probably by the end on the week you will be perfect again”

Dezel nodded, although he had the feeling that Rose was too optimistic.

“How much time I’ve been sleeping?”, he asked while incorporating and rubbing the side of the head where he had received the impact, because it still hurt quite a lot, “Are we still at Ladylake?”

“Three days”, Rose explained, “and yeah, we’re still at the capital but we were planning to travel to Marlind today, so Lailah had gone to buy some supplies for the travel”

Dezel waited for Rose to keep talking but when the girl didn’t continue he was the one to speak.

“And Zaveid and Edna?”

Rose let out a sigh before answering, and Dezel was surprised when hearing the redhead’s trembling voice.

“Edna has decided to leave the Windriders to take care of Eizen. And Zaveid…”

Dezel’s hear skip a beat when Rose sobbed before speaking in a barely audible whisper.

“…and Zaveid has disappeared. And we don’t know if he’s ever going to come back”

The words that the redhead said stabbed his heart like sharpened blades. Blades that carried incredible pain and confusion, and that inevitably remained inside him during most part of the five years that were still to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Goddammit, this chapter is finally over! For a person who doesn’t like drama, you can’t imagine how damn hard it’s been to write this chapter -.-
> 
> Besides, I still have a lot of doubts regarding this chapter because I’m not sure if I’ve been able to describe the dramatic situations well enough. I have the feeling that I’ve tended to describe everything too fast and that probably kills the dramatic mood but believe me when I say that I’ve tried my best to do it right ^^U Also, I think that Symonne and Hedalf are a little OOC. Especially Symonne, because I don’t know why but when describing her I feel that she resembles more to Agria of Tales of Xillia than the original Symonne…So if there’s a fan of those characters I’m sorry: again, I’ve described them the best I could. 
> 
> Despite all that, I hope that you have enjoyed more or less the chapter :) The next one will take place in the present time and I don’t think there will be more flashbacks. 
> 
> Also, I finally finished all my exams (at the end I’ve managed to pass them all, I still can’t believe it) so I hope that in three weeks I’ll be able to have the next update, although as always I don’t dare to make any promises :)


	10. Again up there

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: a little of angst but compared with the previous chapter this is rather light :P

“And that’s our story”

When Lailah finished talking, none of the boys said anything. Sorey simply enclosed an arm around Mikleo’s lower back, deep sadness showing on his usual lively expression, and even if Mikleo’s face couldn’t be seen because his head was pointing towards the ground making his bangs hide his expression, it was evident that the boy was crying for the way his shoulders were slightly shaking.

“Now I understand why Dezel can’t do that show”, Sorey muttered, “then, the hat that he is always wearing…”

Lailah nodded with a sad smile.

“Yes, it was Lafarga’s”

At that moment Mikleo sobbed softly and after rubbing his eyes discretely he finally raised his head to look at Lailah.

“And what happened with the rest of the people that was with the Windriders? Why neither of them remained with you?”

“Well, after the incident and Zaveid’s leaving, the fame of the Windriders began to decrease, so did our benefits. Consequently, we began to have more and more difficulties to keep paying the staff of the circus and eventually that caused the people to abandon the circus until just Rose, Dezel and I remained. Besides, in just a year the Calamity Circus began to become famous, so a lot of people that used to work with us decided to join them instead”

Mikleo nodded and averted his eyes while his hands turned into fists with impotence, making Lailah settle a hand over them with affection.

“But there is something that I don’t understand”, Sorey said with confusion, “why Zaveid doesn’t tell Dezel the truth? If he told Dezel the reason for which he left I’m sure that Dezel would immediately come back with him”

Lailah smiled resignedly.

“Yes, I think that he should tell him too, but according to Zaveid even if he had motives to leave, the fact that he abandoned Dezel and made him suffer is still there, so he considers unfair to use his leaving as an excuse. Besides, Zaveid is right when assuming that Dezel would blame himself as well for his leaving, and that’s something that Zaveid definitely doesn’t want. So please, promise me that you are not going to tell Dezel anything”

After interchanging a look, Mikleo and Sorey exhaled a frustrated sigh at the same time before nodding with certain reluctance, causing Lailah to chuckle softly.

 “Don’t worry”, Lailah said with confidence, “my intuition tells me that not much remains until Zaveid and Dezel are together again”

* * *

Dezel woke up from his half-asleep daze when someone knocked at the door. He incorporated until ending sitting on the bed, momentarily confused when feeling that the bed where he had been lying was different from the one of his caravan until remembering that he was at the inn of Pendrago.

When a couple of more knocks sounded again Dezel sighed and dried the remains of the tears that were still on his cheeks. Damn, he wouldn’t have minded to keep sleeping a little more. At least like that he didn’t have to remember the reason of his escape from the camp.

“Yes?”, he asked with a purposely impatient tone, trying to indicate the annoying person out there that he was being bothered.

“E-Excuse me, sir”, Dezel felt a little guilty when hearing the apologetic voice of a woman, “but there are some personal data of your register that we have to verify so please, could you open the door to confirm that everything is correct?”

Dezel frowned while standing up from the bed an approaching the door. He didn’t know what personal data could be wrong. When renting the room he had just said his name and nothing more.

“Alright”, he said with a resigned tone while opening the door a little.

Or at least that was his intention, because suddenly the door was opened completely and a figure that clearly wasn’t feminine practically stomped on the room.

“Thanks a lot, honey, you’ve been a great help”

Dezel froze when recognized that voice, and he could just hear the girl muttering some kind of hurried apology before the door was closed as rudely as it had been opened.

“Damn, Dezel-chan, you could have told us where you were going to be. Pendrago isn’t precisely small”

“What the hell was that about?”, Dezel snapped, his heart still beating a little more than normal because of Zaveid’s sudden visit.

“Oh, do you mean the register thing?”, Zaveid scratched the back of his head, “weeell, let’s say that I had the feeling that if I had announced my presence directly, you wouldn’t have let me enter”

Dezel clicked his tongue.

“You’ve guessed perfectly right so could you leave already, please? You should be training for tomorrow show instead of wasting time looking for me”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll train”, Zaveid said with an enervating calming tone, “but not without you”

Dezel, who had been about to push Zaveid out of the room again, stopped in his tracks with an astonished expression on his face.

“What?”, he said, thinking that he hadn’t understood right.

“You’ve heard me, Dezel”, this time Zaveid’s tone sounded determined, “I’m not going to leave this room without you”

Dezel snorted.

“Are you kidding right?”, he crossed his arms over his chest, “I thought that I had made myself clear when saying that I don’t want to do that show”

“No, what you’ve said is that you _can’t_ do that show”

Dezel gulped. Damn Zaveid, why did he always remember the most inconvenient things?

“Tsk, is there any difference?”, Dezel muttered, turning his head to the side.

“Yeah, and a really important one”, Zaveid settled a hand over Dezel’s shoulder, “because if you didn’t want to do it, knowing how stubborn you are I couldn’t possibly convince you. However, if you _can’t_ , that just means that we have to work together to make it possible”

Dezel snorted again.

“Oh yeah? And do you really think that in just a day you can achieve what I couldn’t do in a whole damn year?”

Dezel removed Zaveid’s hand from his shoulder, and since the gesture was ruder than he had intended he made sure to use a softer tone when speaking next.

“Look Zaveid, thanks for wanting to help me but it’s not going to work. I tried it. I really tried, but it’s useless. And no matter how little the distance from the rope to the ground is: the moment I place a foot on it, my body just blocks and doesn’t obey me, so it’s impossible for me to…”

“It’s not impossible, Dezel. You just have to stop blaming yourself without motive and that’s when you’ll be finally able to do it again”

Dezel had been about to protest for Zaveid’s interruption but when hearing the other man’s words he stopped what he was going to say, a frown appearing on his face.

“Without motive?”, Dezel repeated.

“Yeah, without motive”, Zaveid repeated _again_ , and Dezel was surprised when hearing a hint of irritation on Zaveid’s usual calm voice, “what happened five years ago wasn’t your fault. Nor Lafarga’s death, nor Eizen’s state either, even if you keep insisting on the contrary despite Lailah’s attempts of convincing you”

Dezel exhaled an empty laugh.

“Come on, do you really want to believe that Lailah doesn’t think like that? And Edna?”, he said with bitterness, “maybe they don’t admit it aloud because they are kind enough not to accuse me directly, but I’m sure that they both would have preferred that Eizen wouldn’t have saved me...”

Obviously, Dezel didn’t see the hit coming. In fact, he realized that Zaveid had just slapped him when he felt his cheek stinging, and even if the pain was rather sharp he knew that Zaveid hadn’t used much force because otherwise he would have been lying on the floor by then.

“Don’t ever say something like that again”, Dezel couldn’t help to gulp when realizing that Zaveid’s tone was lower than usual, indicating him that his last comment has pissed him off,  “I know that you don’t really mean it, but saying that is as if you were accusing Lailah or Edna of not caring about you, and they don’t deserve to be doubted like that”

Dezel suppressed the urge of rubbing his cheek and managed to adopt a more or less decent firm voice when speaking again.

“I don’t doubt them. And I know that they care about me. But I also know that there’s no way that they don’t blame me for Eizen’s state. With the years I’ve accepted that there was nothing that I could do to save Lafarga, but it doesn’t matter how much you try to convince me: what happened to Eizen was _my_ fault, because if I hadn’t been paralyzed after seeing Lafarga die, if I had reacted sooner, maybe I would have managed to reach the pillar in time and consequently Eizen wouldn’t have needed to fall with me to save me”

“And if Lafarga had checked the installation better, none of that would have happened wither”

Dezel’s mouth fell completely opened, not expecting that reply at all.

“What?”, he simply asked, hoping to have misunderstood Zaveid’s comment, but when the older man kept speaking he realized that he hadn’t understood anything wrong.

“I say that if you want to blame someone, you should blame the old man”

Dezel gritted his teeth when hearing Zaveid’s completely unbothered tone.

 “Oi…”, Dezel grabbed Zaveid’s by his collar, his hands trembling with a mix of disappointment and anger, “…what the hell is wrong with you? How can you accuse Lafarga so nonchalantly?”

Zaveid didn’t make any attempt of pushing Dezel away, and when he spoke again his tone was even calmer than before, as if he was trying to annoy Dezel more on purpose.

“I’m just telling the truth. I love Lafarga. He did for me what no one had ever done. He decided to accept me by his side without hesitation, and thanks to him I was able to find my passion for the circus. He was a man who never thought ill of anyone. A man who always looked on the bright side of people. And precisely that adorable innocence was what made him unable to suspect Symonne in the least during that day five years ago. He was the one who took the responsibility of making sure to check the assembly of the installations in order to assure that everything was right, but because of his blind trust to that girl, he was unable to see Symonne’s true intentions and consequently he let her sabotage the show…”

“ _Shut up!_ ”

Dezel managed to throw Zaveid against one of the walls of the room while keeping grabbing his collar.

“How can you say that you love Lafarga and say such things about him?”, Dezel practically snarled with anger, his face so close to Zaveid that their noses were almost brushing, “if he is the one to blame because he couldn’t see through that damn woman, in that case not just him but _all_ of us are at fault because neither of us was able to discover her true intentions either!”

Dezel was about to keep shouting, but then Zaveid settled a hand on his cheek in such an unexpected tender gesture that Dezel forgot what he was going to say.

“Exactly, Dezel. Exactly”, Dezel was surprised when Zaveid used and extremely soft voice, “ _Neither_ of us was able to see through it, so if there is someone that we have to blame it’s not you. It’s, as you’ve just said, _all of us_ ”

Dezel’s anger gradually evaporated until just confusion remained.

“But you’ve just said that Lafarga was the one at fault…”

Zaveid surprised him once again when chuckling softly.

“Yeah, I did. And what’s your reaction been when saying that?”, Dezel felt the smile on Zaveid’s next words, “to defend the old man tooth and nail. With the same vigor that we all use when defending that you are NOT the one at fault, even if you stubbornly keep believing that”

“But it’s not the same!”, Dezel protested, “first of all, even if there was nothing that I could do when the tightrope broke, that doesn’t change the fact that if I hadn’t been up there, Lafarga wouldn’t have needed to sacrifice himself to save me”

“Dezel, if you hadn’t been in the tightrope I would have been the one replacing you, and the result would have been the same. Or maybe different, because maybe in that case I would have been the one in…”

“Don’t complete that sentence!”, Dezel shook Zaveid while shouting with a desperation that surprised even him, “if…if you had been the one in…”

Dezel’s voice broke just at the end because of the lump that had just formed on his throat when the image of Zaveid replacing Lafarga during his mortal fall appeared on his mind. He gulped and tried it again, but then Zaveid embraced him, one of his arms surrounding his back completely and the other one settling on the back of his head, effectively cutting the little chances that Dezel had of being able to reply something.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that last part”, Zaveid apologized, even if his tone sounded somewhat happy for Dezel’s almost hysteric reaction, “but I’m just trying to make you understand that you have no motive to blame yourself. Lafarga just did what he had to do: to protect one of his precious children, and I’m sure that wherever he is right now he doesn’t regret to have died like that at all”

Dezel bit his bottom lip, but when Zaveid began to stroke his hair with tenderness he realized that he wasn’t going to be able to keep his cool anymore, so he decided to let himself drown into that always suffocating but satisfying warm, using his arms to surround Zaveid’s lower back tightly and letting out all the tears that he had been trying to hold back not just since that afternoon, but since that day five years ago when knowing what had happened to Lafarga, and to Eizen, and to his eyesight. And especially, since the moment he discovered that maybe Zaveid had disappeared from his life forever.

“And about Eizen”, Zaveid continued, “what you’ve said about you being the cause of his current state for not being able to react faster is wrong. The tightrope practically broke the moment you began to move so I’m afraid that nothing would have changed….No, that’s a lie. Something would have changed”, Zaveid embraced him more tightly, and Dezel was surprised when Zaveid took a deep breath before continuing, his voice sounding a little ragged when doing so, “that probably you would have fallen before giving Eizen time to catch you. And damn, if that had happened I would have been the one unable to forgive myself”

Dezel gulped when detecting fear on Zaveid’s words, and since that was something that he definitely didn’t like to hear on Zaveid’s always cheery voice he immediately exhaled a purposely loud snort.

“Oh, so you are allowed to blame yourself but I am not…”

Dezel was relieved when feeling Zaveid relaxing again while exhaling a short laugh when hearing Dezel’s ironic tone.

“No, you aren’t”, Zaveid said, releasing him just the necessary to be able to look at his face but keeping his arms around his body, and Dezel was glad when hearing that familiar mockery back on Zaveid’s voice, “after all, a crybaby shrimp like you isn’t allowed to blame himself”

“What the…? Who do you think you are calling shrimp?! Now you are only taller than me by _two centimeters_!”

“Oh, but you don’t deny the crybaby part, hah?”

“…Seriously, Zaveid, you are…”

The older man laughed again when hearing Dezel’s tone before flicking him on the forehead playfully.

“I know, I know: I am exasperating, right?”

Dezel didn’t say anything. _Yes, but you are also_ _amazing,_ Dezel would have liked to say, because even if he couldn’t help to feel that he was in part at fault for his master and friend’s fates, at least the horrible feeling of guiltiness and self-hatred that had been accompanying him during all those years had vanished a little.

Dezel suppressed a defeated sigh. Definitely Zaveid hadn’t lost his ability to comfort him with his confidence and kindness. And damn if that wasn’t making him want to act in a way that he had desperately trying to avoid during the almost three weeks that Zaveid had been with them. A way that implied to break the promise that he had forced Zaveid to do, and that implied the older man to end with a black eye in case of breaking it…

“So…”, Zaveid speaking suddenly again made Dezel’s heart jump inside his chest because of the thoughts that had been rounding his head, “…are you finally going to stop acting as a depressed shrimp and help me to recover our old show? Or am I going to be obliged to tie you up with my pendulums to make that happen? And hey, now that I think about it, to use the pendulums to try out some bondage could be extremely hot… _ouch_!”

“Show more respect for your pendulums”, Dezel snapped while Zaveid rubbed the side of his head where Dezel had hit him, although for the way Zaveid laughed Dezel deduced that the man had noticed the smile that had been about to appear on his lips, “and about recovering our show…”, Dezel’s expression turned serious again, almost solemn, “…I’m still not sure about being able to do it by tomorrow night but I’ll try. With all I have”

Zaveid smiled with satisfaction.

“That’s the spirit, Dezel-chan”, he said before finally releasing him, “and now that you finally seem to have come to your senses let’s go to see the rest. They were really worried about you leaving like that”

Dezel gulped and nodded while recovering Lafarga’s hat from the night stand. Damn, he didn’t know how many times he had worried Lailah and Rose because of his attitude, so even if it was probably too late he had to apologize.

“And Dezel-chan…”

“What?”, Dezel asked, confused when hearing Zaveid’s apologetic tone, and again he jumped a little when Zaveid caressed tenderly his cheek.

“I’m sorry about the hit”

It took Dezel a little to understand Zaveid’s apology, and when he did he couldn’t prevent a snort from escaping.

“Please, Zaveid, what do you think I am? A delicate flower?”, Dezel asked with irony, “maybe I’m not as strong as you but I can perfectly stand a slap of yours without breaking. Besides, have you forgotten the punch that I gave you when we first met?”

Zaveid chuckled but there was still hesitation on his voice when speaking again.

“No, I haven’t, but at that time I deserved it since I kissed you out of the blue without even asking”

“Well, I deserved the hit too for being such a stubborn shrimp so we are tied”, Dezel said with a cutting tone, trying to push back his blushing when remembering how damn good that brief kiss had felt after so many years, “so stop apologizing stupidly and let’s go”

Zaveid chuckled before following Dezel out of the room.

“Okay, stubborn shrimp. I follow you”

“ _Zaveid_ …”

“Hey, I’ve not been the one in calling you that so you can’t complain”

Zaveid just chuckled again when Dezel exhaled a purposely loud resigned sigh, but when they finally left the inn and Zaveid enclosed an arm playfully around Dezel’s shoulder this one didn’t make any attempt of pushing him again.

* * *

They remained in that position during all their travel towards the Windriders Camp, where they found Sorey and Mikleo packing several things.

“Oi, where are the ladies? They haven’t come back yet?”

When hearing Zaveid, the two toys immediately stopped what they were doing to approach them.

“No, but Lailah has asked us to begin to move some things to the main plaza, since we are going to mount the big top there”, Sorey explained.

“Tsk, we could have gone there directly”, Dezel regretted, and then the unnatural tense silence that followed made Dezel deduc successfully that Sorey and Mikleo were staring at him while suppressing the urge to speak, “and relax already: this idiot has convinced me to try to do that show even if I’m pretty sure that I’m going to fail”

When hearing his words Sorey and Mikleo let out a loud sigh of relief that caused Zaveid to begin to laugh.

“That’s great!”, Sorey exclaimed with such happy tone that Dezel couldn’t help to feel a little overwhelmed. Damn, he had just met that kid three weeks ago, how could he be so genuinely happy for him? He was surely a really good kid.

“Yes, although be careful: Edna has the intention of hitting you with her umbrella the moment she sees you”, Mikleo added with a warning tone.

“Tsk, that’s nothing new”, Dezel said with a resigned tone.

After that, Zaveid and Dezel helped Mikleo and Sorey to carry the rest of the materials, and after making sure that the animals were were resting and there was no risk that they provoked a ruckus while being left alone, they entered the city again in the direction of the main plaza.

They arrived barely ten minutes later to find the big top practically installed, since Sergei had offered the girls some of his knights to help with the installation, and when Dezel heard the unmistakable cheery voices of Rose and Lailah together with Edna’s monotone voice from the inside he gulped. Damn, after his rather embarrassing behavior he couldn’t help to feel nervous of their reaction.

“Come on, Dezel-chan. They are not going to bite you”, Zaveid joked then when noticing his sudden tension, and after exhaling a deep breath Dezel nodded to himself before following Sorey and Mikleo inside.

“It was time already, slowpokes! I hope you haven’t been intimating instead of packi…”

Rose’s teasing comment stopped suddenly, indicating Dezel that he had noticed his presence.

“Dezel…”, she simply muttered, her tone full of surprise and relief at the same time.

Dezel gulped again, trying to calm himself down a little before speaking. However, before he could do anything he heard small but fast steps approaching him with determination, and when recognizing them he instinctively raised an arm over his head in an attempt to protect himself from the hit that was surely going to come.

But this time, his instincts failed him. Because instead of the hit that he was expecting he was forced to keep his balance when suddenly finding himself in a tight hug.

“Edna?”, he asked in disbelief, still not believing what was happening, because there was no way that Edna - _Edna_ \- was hugging him like that. He would have expected that reaction from Rose, or from Lailah, but not from the tsundere and always grumpy Edna, the queen of keeping her feelings and emotions to herself.

“What happened to my brother wasn’t your fault”, Dezel felt his heart skip a beat when hearing Edna’s muffled but cutting words, “and yes, it’s true that at first I blamed you. And that at first a part of me would have preferred that Eizen didn’t climb that pillar to help you because that way he wouldn’t have ended like that. But then, after thinking about the alternative, and after realizing what would have happened to you if he hadn’t done what he did, I stopped thinking that way. Because even if asleep, Eizen is at least still alive, so there is hope for him to recover. But if he hadn’t caught you when you fell, you…”, Dezel froze when hearing Edna’s tone faltering, “you…”

“You would have died”, Lailah completed then with a soft voice, approaching Dezel and Edna to hug them both tenderly, “and that’s something that nor Eizen, nor anyone of the Windriders, could have let it happen. Of course we would have liked that Eizen didn’t end that way, but every one of us would have acted the same way than him to save someone important to us. And I’m sure that Eizen would be really angry if he discovered that you were feeling guilty for that. In fact, if he wakes up the first thing that I’m going to tell him is that he doesn’t dare to cook you one of his famous desserts, as a punishment for not listening to us sooner”

“You’re really an idiot!”, Dezel exhaled a breathless gasp when Rose enclosed her arms around his body from behind with force, since his front was completely occupied by Edna and Lailah, “jeez, we aren’t Zaveid, you know? We don’t have the ability to read you so easily, so stop keeping everything to yourself! We are family, and that means that you don’t need to suffer alone, so stop playing the lone wolf already because we are you damn pack!”

Despite Dezel could feel again a lump forming on his throat, he couldn’t help to exhale a laugh when hearing Rose’s comparison, while feeling that familiar uneasiness that he had been feeling during all that time slowly disappearing. 

Damn, he surely was lucky, having all that crazy but fantastic people around him.

“Sorry”, he said with a sincere apologetic tone, “I know that I’ve been a pain in the ass during these years, but I promise that from now on I’ll try to share my feelings more with you not to worry you”

All the girls hugged him even tighter after hearing his words, and then, just when they were going to finally separate, a big figure situated just behind Rose to enclose his strong arms around all of them in an almost suffocating embrace, causing everyone to exhale loud squeaks.

“Oi, you could have warned that this was going to be a collective Windriders hug!”

“Oh, in that case I’ll join it too!”

“S-Sorey, wait! We shouldn’t…!”

But Sorey didn’t listen to his boyfriend and after settling just behind Edna he enclosed his arms as well around the blond girl and Lailah, causing Mikleo to face palm with resignation, although the cough that escaped from his mouth looked suspiciously similar to a laugh.

“O-Oi, stop already! This is ridiculous!”, Dezel snapped with embarrassment.

“Zaveid, Zaveid, Zaveid, I can’t breathe. _I can’t breathe_!!”, Rose begged, almost as red as her hair not just because of the tight embrace but also for the laughter.

“Sorey, baka, stop pushing!!”, Edna exclaimed, trying to push back a laughing Sorey back without success.

“Oh my, this is a little uncomfortable but it makes me remember the good times where all of you were much more affectionate!”, Lailah simply said with a happy smile.

“Come on, Mikleo-chan, don’t be like that and join the Windrider pack’s embrace!”

“No, thank you, I’m fine like… _aaaah_!!”

Everyone’s protests turned into laughs when Sorey grabbed Mikleo’s arm and made him stomp against the rest with force, and even if the white-haired boy glared at Sorey he ended enclosing his arms shyly over the rest.

“Umh…”, at that moment a rather confused knight entered the tent, “I’ve just been told that we have to do and installation here but if you are busy we can come back later…”

“Oh no, we have just finished showing our love, don’t worry”, Zaveid said with his usual nonchalance while Sorey, Rose and Lailah made efforts to suppress the laugher while Mikleo and Dezel competed for which one was the redder. Of course, Edna had already recovered her usual impassible attitude.

“Very well then”, at that moment more knights entered, “I estimate that it won’t take us more than an hour so if you want to do other things meanwhile we’ll warn you when you finish”

“Thanks for the offer but I prefer to keep an eye on the installation, if you don’t mind”

“Yes, I’ll remain here as well”

When hearing Zaveid and Lailah said that with polite but firm tones, Dezel gulped because he knew why they had asked that, and even if he would have liked to stay as well he knew that his presence wasn’t necessary at all. After all, not being able to see made impossible that he could watch over the installation to assure that no one was sabotaging anything, so during the time that the installation was carried out he decided to train together with the rest of the Windriders, since maybe a little of extenuating exercise would help him calm down the uneasiness that had settled in the pit of his stomach now that the moment of truth was slowly approaching. The moment that would decide if he was prepared to become a Wind Seraph again or not.

* * *

At the end, the knights’ estimation was a little optimistic and by when they managed to finish it was already really late, but nevertheless Zaveid and Dezel (more Zaveid than Dezel) decided that they at least tried to make a couple of movements over the tightrope.

Meanwhile, everyone decided that they would finish checking that they had all the necessary for the next day show in order to leave the pendulum performers alone, since they all knew that Dezel was already nervous enough and that having more people around observing them wasn’t going to help. Of course, Rose didn’t like that decision at all because he wanted to remain there to cheer Dezel, but at the end the rest convinced her (more or less) that it was the best solution so she ended accompanying the rest. Although reluctantly.  

“Well. Here we are again”

Dezel took a deep breath and nodded, not trusting his own voice to answer.

They were just in front of the pillars that they had to climb in order to reach the five meters tightrope that had been placed up there. Of course during the show of the next day they were going to be at a higher altitude but Zaveid considered that it was better to begin with a lower one.

“So…”, Zaveid said with a soft tone, “Are you ready?”

Dezel exhaled a nervous laugh.

“I don’t know”, he admitted. Now that the moment that he had been fearing since that morning had finally come, his previous resolution was slowly fading.

“Dezel-chan, that’s not how a pride Wind Seraph should talk”, Zaveid said with a playful tone while enclosing his arm around his shoulders, “remember when you were younger and you always claimed that you were going to be the best Wind Seraph?”

Dezel snorted.

“Yeah, I remember, but at that moment I was just a cocky brat. Now I seriously doubt that I can ever mange to be as good as you”

Zaveid bumped his forehead softly against Dezel’s temple.

“Oi, although it’s rather nice to be complemented by you instead of insulted I don’t want you to undervalue yourself. Because even if it’s true that you were an adorable cocky brat, you had all the rights to be like that. After all you managed to become a Wind Seraph in just three years when it took me almost four”

“That was just because you spent almost half a year fooling around with girls”

“…Yeah, maybe that has something to do with it but anyway”, Zaveid’s tone turned reassuring, “what I’m saying is that you are way more incredible than you think. And if the fact that you’ve managed to improve your technique even more during all these years while being blind is not enough to convince you of that, I’m afraid that what I’ve overestimated your intelligence, not you skills”

Dezel snorted while beginning to lower his hat in order to hide the giant blush that had settled on his cheeks without any success.

“So stop thinking too much”, Zaveid ended saying with a smile, “and even if it sounds topic as hell, believe in yourself. I can guarantee you that that’s the only think that you lack right now to manage to do the show”

Dezel exhaled another deep breath and nodded, forcing himself to push aside the negative thoughts in order to focus on his task on hand, that for now consisted on climbing that pillar to reach the tightrope.

“Very well, Dezel-chan”, Zaveid announced when they both were finally on the top of the pillars, “I’ll go first and I’ll wait you on the middle of the tightrope, okay?”

Dezel gave a shaky nod of confirmation, and even if it didn’t take Zaveid even ten seconds to reach the center, Dezel felt that it had been an eternity, since that short time had been enough to make his heart become crazy.

“Okay, I’m in position”, Zaveid announced, “so whenever you are ready”

Dezel gulped and approached slowly the border of the pillar. And then, as always, he felt the horrible sensation of his body not responding him correctly: his legs refusing to move, as if they were stuck on the floor, and his arms stiffened on either side of his body, not allowing him to extend them in order to keep the balance. _Damn it_ , Dezel thought to himself with _frustration, damn it, I’m useless…_

“Dezel”, Dezel was about to jump when hearing Zaveid’s reproaching tone, “don’t push yourself. We have all the time you need so take your time to relax and concentrate. I’ll be just right here, okay? Waiting for you”

Somehow, Zaveid’s last words made him calm down enough so that his body responded him, although it was still shaking slightly, so tentatively he dared to place a foot on the tightrope.

And that’s when images that were a mix of reality and fiction product of his guiltiness appeared just in front of him, so vividly that it was as if he could see again. Images that had been tormenting him during years and that at that moment made his chest clench so painfully that he felt the imperious necessity of gasping for air: the tightrope breaking; the people crying down there; Lafarga falling and hitting the ground with an horrible sound that was way louder than it should have been; Eizen falling with him not to wake up ever again; everyone looking at him with barely suppressed hate, their expressions carrying a clear message: it was you; it was your fault; you are a murderer; you are…

“Dezel”

Suddenly, as fast as they had come, the images that were assaulting him stopped completely when Dezel heard Zaveid’s voice so close to him. It seemed that during his panic attack the man had walked all the tightrope until reaching the opposite pillar, where Dezel was.

“Dezel, I’m here”, Zaveid grabbed one of his hands and pressed it briefly, “ _We_ are here. This is not five years ago, there is no reason to panic”

Dezel grabbed Zaveid’s hand with almost all his force, as if that was his safeguard not to fall into that nightmare again.

“So don’t be a scaredy-cat now”, Zaveid added with a more playful one, moving backwards without releasing Dezel, forcing the younger man to follow him with slow and still hesitating steps, “we have done this hundredths of times, remember? This is nothing for pros like us. And even if we fall, the mat will protect us. Lailah-chan and I have made sure of checking that”

Thanks to Zaveid’s continued talk, they had managed to reach the center of the tightrope and Dezel had barely noticed it.

“Now I’m going to release your hand”, Zaveid seemed to notice the panic that appeared momentarily on Dezel’s slightly strained expression because when he talked again, his tone was softer, “it’s alright. You’re more than prepared to do this”

Dezel stopped feeling Zaveid’s contact, and even if for a moment he felt about to panic again he immediately forced himself to focus.

This was not five years ago. That nightmare was already over. And even if he still missed Lafarga and Eizen a lot, he had accepted that he could have done nothing to prevent their fate. And that even if he had been involved in what happened to them both directly, it was not his fault, and that the rest didn’t blame him for that. And Zaveid was right.  What they were doing was nothing new. And it was not difficult, because even if he was blind now he had already got used to it, so why the hell was he so afraid?

After exhaling a deep breath, Dezel slowly reached his pocket, and after fumbling with it a little he managed to extract his pendulum. Damn, he had to work on it. Five years ago he wasn’t so clumsy.

“That’s it, Dezel”, Zaveid said with a tone that tried to sound calm, although the expectation on his voice was evident, “and now…do you best move”

Dezel was about to protest, saying that it would be better to begin with something more basic, but almost immediately he discarded that option. They hadn’t time to begin with the basics since the show was tomorrow, so they needed to focus on their best moves.

“Okay”, Dezel muttered, extracting the other pendulum from his pocket, since obviously his best move implied to use his two pendulums.

Dezel didn’t move during almost half-a-minute, just focusing on how he had to move in the tightrope in order to do that movement, and during that time Zaveid simply observed him quietly, an expression full of tenderness and pride that Dezel unfortunately missed.

And then, after that time, Dezel finally moved.

And of course the movement that he realized was very far from perfect, since just at the end of Dezel’s spin the extremes of the pendulums crashed and ended warped around Dezel’s ruining his final stance, causing to fall from the tightrope followed immediately by Zaveid, whose attempt to keep Dezel on the tightrope had been useless.

But despite that, and despite knowing that his movement has been objectively rather lame, when hitting the mat there was just one things that mattered.

 “I did it”, Dezel breathed out, his tone still incredulous, “I did it…”

Zaveid smiled widely next to him before incorporating to lean on his forearm to look at Dezel.

“Yeah, Dezel”, Zaveid confirmed, his voice sounding a little lower than usual because of the emotion, “you did”

Dezel let out a nervous laugh while biting his bottom lip in an attempt to stop his urges of beginning to cry out from happiness.

He couldn’t believe it. Finally, he had managed to stand up there, and what was more: his body had obeyed him. Okay, it was true that the movement that he had managed to do had been horribly clumsy but he had done it without suffering those terrible visions that had been assaulting him all the previous times that he had tried to perform, and that meant that with enough practice he could make it. He could do it again. The show that Lafarga and Zaveid taught him and that made him love the circus even more the possible.

And all thanks to Zaveid. As always, that exasperating, overconfident and annoying man had managed to fulfill his promise. Once again, that man had saved him.

“Okay, Dezel-chan, I think that for today this is more than enough”, Zaveid said with a cheery tone, missing the way Dezel gulped, “but be prepared because tomorrow we are going to have to work impossibly hard if we want to have a decent show for tomorr…”

Zaveid shut up when Dezel turned toward his side and slowly, incredibly slowly, raised his hands to grab his face between his hands, the question that he had been about to make turning into a sharp inhale when Dezel, tentatively, slid his thumb across his lower lip, tracing the contour of his mouth.

Dezel felt more than heard Zaveid inhaling again after that action, since the frantic beating of his own heart on his ears was the only thing that he could hear at that moment. Because finally, after all that time, he was aware of an irrefutable truth. Or better said, he had just acknowledged it:

He loved Zaveid.

In fact, he hadn’t ever stopped loving him during all that time, and even if the idiot had caused him great pain when leaving him the way he did, there was no way that he could _not_ love him after everything Zaveid had done for him. After how Zaveid hadn’t stopped showing him how damn much he kept caring about him despite Dezel’s first cold attitude. After how Zaveid always managed to save him over and over again, without asking for anything in return.

At the end, the only thing that had stopped him from finally accepting those overwhelming feelings that had never abandoned him was his fear to be hurt again, but he had been an idiot for fearing that. After all, Zaveid had promised him not to leave him again, and the man had managed to fulfill every one of his promises.

He promised him to protect him, and he did it when his stepfather threatened him.

He promised him that he would be the only one in his life when they finally got together, and he remained faithful to him during all those five years.

He promised not to kiss him again without permission, and the result was that now he was craving for those lips that he himself had forced out of him.

And he promised him to make him be able to do the show again, and against all odds he had managed to do it.

Damn it, definitely there couldn’t be better alias than ‘of the Promise’ to describe that incredibly awesome man that now Dezel thought he didn’t deserve at all.

So right then, Dezel thought to himself while slowly beginning to raise his face towards Zaveid’s one, he was going to show it to him How damn grateful he was going to him. How damn much Zaveid meant to him. How damn much he had missed him. How damn much he had been dying to do what he was going to finally do…

“Argh, I can’t wait anymore, the impatience is killing me! Hey, how are you doi…?”

Dezel didn’t consider himself a particularly violent man, but at that moment, after hearing Rose’s strangled gasp, he had to make use of all his self-control not to shout to the inopportune girl.

“S-sorry, sorry!”, the girl practically squeaked, “I-I’ll just come back later so continue with the…umh…training and…”

“Don’t worry, Rose-chan. We have just finished”

Dezel froze when Zaveid’s only reaction was to answer with a completely natural tone while incorporating out of the mat, eliminating the contact between them, and for the way Rose immediately shut up it seemed that he hadn’t been the only one in being confused.

He didn’t understand. There was no way that Zaveid hadn’t realized that he had been about to kiss him, and after how much Zaveid had insisted on wanting that to happen Dezel had expected a completely different reaction, so why the hell the man had acted as if he was oblivious about it?

“O-oh, so that means that you’ve already managed to do it?”

By then Dezel had already stood up from the mat and had approached Rose and Zaveid while keeping thinking furiously in a good explanation. Or well, maybe at the end there was nothing to be explained because Zaveid was _really_ unaware about what had been about to happen and he was simply thinking too much about it.

“Of course he has”, Zaveid answered then, and Dezel felt at least a little of relief when seeing that his affectionate tone was the same as always.

“Really?! Congratulations!! I knew that you’d make it”, Rose exclaimed with such enthusiasm that Dezel couldn’t help to smile happily despite being still worried for Zaveid’s behavior.

“Yeah, but I’ve barely managed to make a movement with the pendulum and it was rather bad, so tomorrow we are going to have to work really hard”

“Yep, but I’m pretty sure that we’ll be able to have a decent performance to show to that annoying Cardinal during tomorrow show”, Zaveid said with such a reassuring tone, and just when Dezel was thinking that maybe he had been wrong and Zaveid’s obliviousness was a fake, the man continued, “so now we just need to rest. We have experienced enough emotions for today and we need to cool down a little so that we don’t make the mistake of rushing things. After all, this show is just the previous step to our true objective if we want to beat Hedalf”

And then, after hearing Zaveid’s apparently reasoned and logic words, Dezel understood the reason behind Zaveid’s sudden ‘obliviousness’.

So that was it. The idiot was doing again what he did more than five years ago when realizing that his feeling for him weren’t the typical of the ones that a big brother would have for his young brother anymore. Again, Zaveid was holding back his true feelings for him and pretending not to notice his actions in order to assure that Dezel had _cooled down_. That he wasn’t _rushing things_.  And damn, Dezel bet his damn hat that when he had tried to kiss him, Zaveid had thought that he had just done it in order to _thank_ him. Because now that he remembered the first time that they had sex, despite his usual confidence, Zaveid had been afraid of being forcing his way on Dezel, as if he felt somehow obliged to do things that he didn’t want to do.

And okay, Dezel had to admit that at that moment Zaveid’s way of thinking was in part logic because even he thought that it was evident how damn much he had been desiring to do it with Zaveid, at that moment he was just sixteen and Zaveid twenty-two, so he couldn’t blame the man for wanting to be sure that he was really agreeing on the idea.

But damn, now _he_ was twenty-two. He was an adult. So if he was right, and Zaveid was really acting in such a oblivious way for that reason, the man was way more stupid than he already thought he was!

“Dezel?”

Dezel jumped when hearing his name been called, realizing that he had spaced out and that probably during that time Zaveid and Rose had been speaking about something that he hadn’t heard at all.

“Sorry, what were you saying?”

Zaveid laughed and enclosed an arm around his shoulders.

“Dezel-chan, how rude”, Zaveid said with a teasing tone, “The fact that you are going to become famous again thanks to our unbeatable show doesn’t mean that you can ignore the rest of the minor performers…”

“Do you want me to show you what this minor performer is able to do with her daggers?”

“Okay, okay, I take that back, I take that back. Dezel-chan, please, protect me!”

When feeling Zaveid ‘hide’ behind him to protect himself from Rose, Dezel studied for a moment the possibility of asking him for a private conversation in order to make the idiot understand that his feelings were real, and that he wanting to kiss him wasn’t him just for gratitude.

However, even if he succeeded in convincing the man (thing that right now he thought it was rather impossible) he was pretty sure how things would turn out, and even if at that moment there was nothing that he desired more than to spend a completely sleepless night with Zaveid, they couldn’t allow themselves to do that now, because what Zaveid had said was true. The next day show was just a previous step to achieve their goal: to be the best circus of the world and to destroy the Calamity Circus, so he had to stay focused.

So for now, he would play Zaveid’s game while pretending that nothing had happened, or better said, had been _about to_ happen. But just until tomorrow show. Because after that like hell if he was not going to force Zaveid to stop acting like an overprotective idiot. And it had come to his mind a rather good (and certainly embarrassing) way to do it.

“Tsk, keep behaving like that and I’ll make the Wind Seraph’s show alone”

Zaveid laughed when hearing Dezel’s purposely superior tone.

“It’s a nice change to hear you speak with such overconfidence”, Zaveid ruffled Dezel’s hair with affection, causing him to barely suppress a blush because now that he had finally accepted his feelings damn if he didn’t want to kiss the idiot right now. Shit, had Zaveid been feeling that way during those three weeks? Because in that case the man had way more self-control that he seemed to have at first glance.

After a couple of more minutes of slightly tense small talk, Zaveid excused himself saying that he had to check with Lailah certain matters regarding the paperwork that they had to fill to be able to perform the next day, and when the man finally left, Dezel could physically feel the way Rose fixed her eyes on him.

“Umh…Dezel…it’s just me of when I’ve entered you were going to…?”

Dezel sighed.

“Yes, Rose. I was going to kiss him”, Dezel managed to cover Rose’s mouth in time to prevent the surprised cry that had been about to escape her mouth, “…and please, I would prefer that the people of Pendrago don’t hear you”

Rose nodded frantically, indicating Dezel that she was going to remain quiet, so Dezel removed his hand from her mouth.

“Then does this mean that you have finally admitted that you still love him?!”

Dezel blushed furiously when hearing Rose’s always direct words but there was no point in denying it anymore.

“W-Well, of course I have, otherwise I wouldn’t have tried to…”

“CONGRATULATIONS!!!”, Dezel lost all the air of his lungs when Rose hugged him with force, “Jeez, it was time already for you to stop pretending!!”

“I-I wasn’t pretending”, Dezel protested, even more red, “I wasn’t sure of my feelings, that’s all…”

“Oh yeah, and for that reason you allowed him to sleep in your bed aaand you stopped minding when he was obviously flirting with you aaand…”

“God, I shouldn’t have told you anything…”

Rose laughed happily when hearing Dezel’s exasperated tone, and as always Dezel’s attempt of keeping an offended attitude failed because he ended smiling as well.

“But I don’t understand”, Rose said after releasing Dezel from her deathly grip, her happy expression turning confused again, “Why Zaveid has acted as if nothing has happened? It has no sense at all”

Dezel sighed again while crossing his arms.

“Yes, it has. He simply wants to be sure that I’m not acting that way just because of gratitude. It’s the same than when I told Eizen about my feelings for Zaveid and he advised me to wait until being sure”

“Yeah, well, but now it’s different because it's horribly evident how damn much you love him so he should have kissed you back”

Dezel was about to protest that it wasn’t _that_ evident but again he shut up. Because who was he kidding? Despite all his efforts he had never been good at hiding his feelings.

“So?”, Rose insisted, “are you planning to go after your idiot almost-boyfriend to make him see that or not?”

Dezel had to suppress a smile when hearing Rose’s hurried tone.

“Yeah, I’ll do, but tomorrow after the show. And…umh…”, Dezel cleared his throat and averted his face to the side with embarrassment, “…I’m going to need your help in order to do that”

After Dezel told Rose his idea he was prepared to receive a teasing comment, but to his surprise Rose just placed a hand over his shoulder.

“Don’t worry, Dezel”, Rose said with a scary solemn tone, “I won’t disappoint you. Leave everything to the capable hands of Rose ‘the Matchmaker’”

“Please, don’t you dare to change your alias to _that one_ ”

“Why? After all you are always making jokes about my current one”

“Yeah, because it’s quite ridiculous, but this new one is _even_ more ridiculous”

“Mmm…how strange…I think that certain someone has just asked me help for something _reeaaally_ important _buuut_ maybe I decide NOT to help him because of his bad attitude…”

Dezel’s worried expression must have been really worth to see because Rose burst out laughing.

“It’s a joke, idiot”, she said punching his shoulder playfully before grabbing one his wrists, “come on. If you want to have prepared _that_ for tomorrow we should begin right now”

“Okay. And Rose…”

“Yep?”

The girl let out a little cry when suddenly Dezel hugged her again.

“Thanks”

Rose blushed a little while exhaling a slight nervous chuckle, since such an action was completely out of character of the grumpy Dezel she had got used to.

“I haven’t done anything yet, silly, so keep your thanks after tomorrow show”, she said with irony while returning the hug. After some more seconds they separated again, “and now let’s go before someone caught us and tells Zaveid that you haven’t been able to resist my charms”

This time Dezel couldn’t help to chuckle while following the redhead out of the tent just to be about to bump into Lailah.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t know that you were still here”, she said with surprise.

“Wow, perfect timing, Lailah”, Rose said with a wide smile while signaling a still rather embarrassed Dezel and her alternatively, “because The ‘Windriders Matchmaker Operation’ is on again so it would be great if we could count with your help”

And something in the way Lailah smiled indicated that she knew what all that was about without needing to be told.

“Alright Dezel-san, Rose-san. I’m all ears”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And FINALLY Dezel has acknowledged his feelings ^^ So to the ones who are expecting that Dezel and Zaveid are finally together in the present don’t worry: it will happen soon. Really soon :D
> 
> I hope you have enjoyed the chapter :) I’ll try to update the next ASAP since I have a pretty good idea of how I want to write it, so probably in less than three weeks I’ll be able to update.
> 
> As always, don’t hesitate in telling me what you think (positive or negative :P) and thanks a lot tothe ones who comment and leave kudos. They really make my day ^^


	11. Anymore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, at the end a little of free time and almost not sleeping in two days have allowed me to update in just one week :D 
> 
> I seriously have to apologize because the first part of the fic is extremely accelerated and short. but I was dying to (SPOILER ALERT OF THE CHAPTER) finally write some smut involving Zaveid and Dezel in the present day and this is the result ^^U
> 
> Also, the song that it’s mentioned in the chapter is “Anymore”, by Travis Tritt. As always, I recommend reading the part of the fic on which the song is mentioned while listening to it :) 
> 
> WARNING: SMUT alert, this time in the present :)

“Wow, the shopping has taken you a while”, Sorey said with surprise when Dezel, Lailah and Rose entered the tent where the rest were about to have dinner.

“Yeah, I’m the one at fault for that”, Rose lied with an extremely convincing apologetic tone, “and the worst part is that I haven’t found any daggers that I liked”

“I’ve had problems trying to find colored papers for my show too”, Lailah lied as well, sitting in her usual place on the table, “at least Dezel-san has managed to buy more threads to his pendulums, because otherwise all the afternoon would have been useless”

“Well, you can always check the shops again tomorrow in the morning”, Mikleo suggested with a reassuring tone, “I’ve heard that the most famous ones receive new merchandise every day so maybe you’re lucky”

While sitting next to Rose, Dezel felt a pang of guiltiness when hearing Mikleo’s suggestion, because Lailah, Rose and him hadn’t gone shopping. They had been locked up in his room at the inn preparing everything for the next day, and although he felt bad for lying the rest he didn’t want to risk telling Mikleo and Sorey because he was afraid of the brunnete’s lack of dissimulation. And about Edna, he didn’t know why but he had the feeling that she knew what they have been doing without needed to tell her.

“I didn’t know you needed a change of threads”, Dezel was about to jump when hearing Zaveid’s curious tone, “I thought that you have renewed them not so long ago”

Dezel managed to keep his expression imperturbable. Crap, he had assumed that Zaveid was going to avoid him during all the dinner so he wasn’t expecting such a direct question.

“Yes, I have, but I just want to be sure”, he said with such a calm tone that he praised himself internally, “after all tomorrow we are going to be training all day and if the threads keep getting hooked on me, maybe they break”

Zaveid hummed to himself, but when Dezel felt Rose’s hand tapping softly his thigh subtly indicating him that Zaveid had bought the excuse, he was able to relax again.

After having dinner, everyone decided to retire soon to sleep, and although Dezel was fearing that things got awkward now that he had to share the bed with Zaveid when he entered the caravan Zaveid was locked up in the bathroom, apparently taking a shower.

“Zaveid?”, he just asked from the outside, just to assure than the man was alright.

“Go to sleep without me, Dezel-chan”, Zaveid asked with his usual cheery voice, “don’t worry, I’ll go out of the caravan when I have to dry my beautiful hair”

Dezel suppressed a sigh. Damn, the idiot surely knew how to avoid him with style.

“Okay. You better not wake me up when you enter the bed”

He heard Zaveid chuckle from the inside.

“I’ll try”

After that, Dezel lied on the bed with the clear intention of falling asleep. However, when the door of the bathroom opened fifteen minutes or so later and Zaveid left the caravan, Dezel was still awake. And when almost an hour later Zaveid entered the caravan again, Dezel kept being awake. And in fact he wasn’t able to finally fall asleep until not feeling Zaveid’s on the bed next to him, this time without spooning him, and the last thought that crossed his mind before tiredness finally reached him was that he couldn’t wait to fix things with that idiot once and for all.

* * *

Dezel woke up alone, as he was partially expecting, but he hadn’t much time to regret for hundredth time how weird things had become between the older Wind Seraph and him because the moment he entered the tent where the rest were having breakfast Rose practically stuck a toast in his mouth while saying: ‘come on, come on, come on, we have to train a lot. Today is the day!’, so thanks to the hyperactive girl he didn’t need to spend an awkward breakfast with Zaveid because a minute of eating didn’t give much time for that.

Fortunately, when working together he and Zaveid had to be extremely focused and consequently they hadn’t time to be acting weird with each other, and since they spent all the morning training nonstop in the blink of an eye it was lunch time and they have to begin to prepare themselves for the imminent performance.

And in the blink of an eye, Dezel, Rose, Edna, Sorey and Mikleo were waiting in the backstage while Zaveid and Lailah welcomed Sergei and the Cardinal in the big top while the rest of Pendrago began to gradually enter as well.

“Damn, the tension between the Cardinal and Sergei is super evident”, Rose commented.

“Yes, they seem about to jump into the other one’s throat at any moment”, Edna added.

“Mikleo, are you alright? You are trembling like a leaf”

“I-I’m perfectly fine!”, Sorey arched his eyebrows with skepticism, causing Mikleo to blush slightly, “o-okay, maybe I’m a little nervous but that’s all!”

“You don’t have to”, Dezel’s sudden words made the boy look at him surprised, “you’re going to do it just fine. If there is someone that may ruin this I can assure you that it will be m…”

“You aren’t going to ruin anything, baka”, Edna interrupted, pointing Dezel’s chest repeatedly with her umbrella, “so stop with that depressing attitude”

“Yeah, you just need focus on doing what you’ve been practicing and it will be enough”, Rose encouraged, and although Dezel exhaled a deep breath in an attempt to calm down he could almost hear the beating of his own heart.

Five minutes later Zaveid and Lailah finally joined the rest.

“How has the talk with the bosses gone?”, Rose asked immediately.

“Well, the Cardinal has declared very subtly that no matter how we do she is going to vote against us”, Zaveid said honestly, causing everyone to gulp at the same time.

“But Sergei-san has declared very subtly as well that no matter how the Cardinal tries to suborn him, press him or threaten him, he is going to vote according to our talent”, Lailah added with a reassuring tone.

“Great”, Dezel said with a mortified tone that caused Sorey to pat his back, replacing Rose as his supporting partner since the girl was busy gargling in order to prepare herself to the presentation.

“Okay, I’m ready”, the girl said with confidence, and after hitting her own cheeks twice she smiled happily at the rest, “let’s go, Windriders: we have a crowd whose heart we have to win”

After saying that, Rose walked with decisiveness towards the center of the stage and climbed the platform from when she was going to give her starting speech.

“Do you think that she has chosen on purpose the words that Lafarga used to say or it has been a coincidence?”, Zaveid asked Lailah with an affectionate tone, causing the woman to chuckle.

“Probably on purpose. Rose-san is way more mature that she seems to be at first glance”

Dezel smiled to himself, feeling a mix of admiration and jealousy for his redhead friend. Damn, he would like to be able to have that untiring optimism. Or at least, to pretend to have it with enough emphasis in order to end convincing himself.

“Oi, Dezel-chan”

Dezel jumped when suddenly feeling Zaveid next to him.

“Yeah?”, he asked with an hesitant tone, and then suddenly he had to make an effort not to fall because Zaveid had used his usual rudeness to enclose an arm around his shoulders.

“Remember what I told you yesterday? About having done this hundredth of times and that pros like us shouldn’t worry at all?”

Dezel nodded, unable to prevent a tiny smile when hearing Zaveid’s purposely overconfident tone.

“Well, then just make sure to keep repeating that over and over again in your head when we are up there”, Zaveid said with a confident smile, “and don’t worry about the result. After all we are the Wind Seraphs. A simple performance like this can’t beat us”

Dezel gulped and nodded again, his apprehension subsiding quite a lot, and although he felt again the impulse of grabbing Zaveid’s face to kiss him senseless he managed to stop his urges. After all, they still had an audience to entertain, and as a circus performer that kept being his first priority right then.

After Rose presented everyone, the first one to perform was Mikleo, since the pool was already prepared, and even if it was evident that the boy was nervous because his voice trembled every time that he gave the Lakehorses an order, the animals obeyed all his indications causing the audience to laugh and applaud.

Obviously, Edna and Lailah’s respective shows were received with great enthusiasm, especially Lailah’s one since the performances in which fire was involved always were the most spectaculars.

Sorey and Rose’s show had a great reception too. After all, the pair had been entraining like crazy and Sorey was an extremely fast learner, so they could always add a couple of new movements in every show.

And then, finally, it was Zaveid and Dezel’s turn. The turn of the Wind Seraphs.

Dezel forced him to take deep breaths while Rose finished announcing them, forcing himself to relax, and at that moment he felt a familiar hand settling on his shoulder.

“Are you ready?”, Zaveid simply asked, and this time Dezel nodded with determination.

Because he was already tired. Tired of always keep doubting himself and tired of being worried of the Cardinal or Hedalf or anyone when those people weren’t important at all, the audience out there was, so the only thing that mattered was to do a show good enough make those people enjoy the moment. And with Zaveid by his side, he would be able to make it. He was sure of it.

“Tsk, of course I am”, he said with a purposely condescending smile while adjusting his hat, Lafarga’s hat, causing Zaveid to laugh with amusement.

“Well said”, he approved with a smile, the affection so evident on his voice that Dezel felt warm invading his chest. Damn, he really couldn’t wait to…

At that moment Rose finally said their names, and after insulting himself internally Dezel finally entered the stage again. _Focus, Dezel_ , he said to himself, _or otherwise there won’t be anything to wait for._

However, when Dezel heard the cries of the people cheering for them, all his doubts about not being able to focus vanished, and in fact while climbing the pillar that just a day ago had scared him to death, he realized that there was no fear anymore.

He just wanted to be up there again with Zaveid, doing the show that Lafarga had taught them to love, and consequently when he finally began to walk through the tightrope there was no hesitation in his steps. Because he knew that Zaveid was going to be there, waiting for him. And that was enough to make him feel at ease. It had always been.

So even if obviously the show that they made was far from perfect, and even if Dezel made several mistakes that years ago he would have never made, during all the time that they were performing not even once he stopped listening to the people support, not either to the soft words of praise or encouragement that Zaveid whispered whenever he made a good or bad movement.

And when Zaveid and he finally finished their show by letting themselves fall from the tightrope to the mat, causing the people to exhale cries of surprise and certain fear while applauding loudly, Dezel thought that that he was never going to forget that day. The day in which he had managed to perform again with Zaveid when he had assumed that that wasn’t possible anymore.

“Great job, Dezel”, Zaveid whispered once they were standing on the ground again, and the pride on his voice caused Dezel to smile widely while finally joining the rest, who had already entered the stage again to face the public with happy smiles, forming a line with his hands joined.

“And that’s been all for today, Ladies and Gentlemen!”, Rose announced with a tone that carried unmistakable happiness, taking her place in the line of the Windriders between Edna and Lailah, “I hope that you have enjoyed seeing us as much as we’ve enjoyed performing for you all! And now…”, the girl finally faced the two main figures that were sitting on the main bench, one of them applauding like the rest and the other one with her hands clenched in fists over her lap, “…what’s the judge verdict?”

Even if the Cardinal attempted to speak first, Sergei was the first one in standing up.

“You have my complete approbation”, he said without hesitation, “and even if it’s evident that you still have to practice some of the shows, considering the little time that you’ve had to prepare everything I’m deeply impressed. So you have as well my complete support during the final competition against the ‘Circus of the Calamity’ that will take place at Ladylake in two months”

When Sergei finished speaking, everyone in the public applauded again (with the exception of a couple of benches that were occupied by followers of the Cardinal), and since the condition for the Windriders to be able to pass to the final part of the competition was to do the tightrope show _and_ that at least half of the judges gave the approbation, everyone ignored completely the attempts of the Cardinal of saying her verdict, so the woman ended abandoning the stage way more discretely than she had entered.

“Thanks a LOT Lord Sergei, people of Pendrago!”, Rose shouted in order to be heard over the noisy public, “as always, it’s a pleasure to perform with such an awesome people!!”

“Mikleo, you can stop trembling. The show is over”, Sorey say between laughs, waving the hand that wasn’t sustaining Mikleo’s one towards the public.

“We did it…”, Mikleo simply said, his eyes and mouth opened in disbelief while staring at the public in front of him, “we really did it… _ouch_! E-Edna, don’t grab my hand so hard!”

“Then stop putting such a scared expression and smile to the public. They are cheering for you”, Edna snapped, causing Rose next to her to laugh.

“In that case you should smile more too, Edna”, she said with amusement, causing the blonde girl huff before finally showing a hint of smile, thing that for Edna was enough.

“You’ve been incredible up there, Dezel-san”, Lailah whispered, grabbing his hand momentarily with force, causing Dezel to blush lightly.

“Oi, what were you expecting, Lailah-chan?”, Zaveid said teasingly, “He is a Wind Seraph and besides he has _me_ as his senpai. Of course he’s been incredible”

At any other moment Dezel would have immediately replied with a sharp comment, but at that moment he felt so happy and alive that he simply faced Zaveid and pressed his hand tightly, trying to transmit his overwhelming feelings with just that simple touch, and his hopes about not needing to carry out the plan that he had thought together with the girls vanished when feeling the way Zaveid tensed. Okay, it seemed that that idiot kept stubbornly thinking that his now obvious attraction for him was just due to gratitude, so it was time to change that.

Consequently, just before Rose gave his final speech, Dezel pressed softly Lailah’s hand two times, the secret code that they have established to initiate the operation (yeah, the girls loved to speak spy mode and Dezel had given up in trying to convince them not to do so), so after Lailah confirmed him that she had understood him pressing his hand twice as well, she warned Rose that the operation was still on in the same way.

After that, the redhead began to name the Windriders again so that they abandoned the stage one at a time, in the order they were forming the line: first Sorey, then Mikleo, then Edna, then Lailah, then Dezel and finally Zaveid. And when Dezel reached the backstage, he realized that mysteriously there was no one there. Dezel smiled to himself. Okay, now he hadn’t the slightest doubt. Edna knew perfectly what was about to happen.

“Well, Dezel-chan, I think that I’m going retire to rest. These two intense days seems to have been too much for an old man like me”, Zaveid said with a little forced joking tone while exhaling an extremely exaggerated yawn, with the clear intention of supporting his obvious excuse.

“Wait”, Dezel’s commanding tone caused Zaveid, who had been about to leave for real, stop in his tracks, “the show hasn’t finished yet”

Zaveid frowned, confused, but at that moment the public began to applaud again and when peeking at the stage again Zaveid realized that Rose hadn’t moved from her place, and that Lailah had just joined her again with a guitar in her hands.

“Alright, Ladies and Gentlemen”, Rose said with a wide smile, “I kindly ask you four minutes more of your time to allow Lailah ‘the Pure’ and Rose ‘the Rose’ to fulfill the petition of a person that needs the Windrider’s help to express his feelings. I hope you enjoy it”

The public applauded again, clearly indicating that they didn’t bother to spend more time in the tent, and when the applauses finally stopped, the chords of Lailah’s guitar invaded the now almost silent place.

 “I didn’t know that someone had asked for a song”

Zavied’s tone sounded sincerely surprised but Dezel just remained silent, his arms crossed over his chest, making sure to pay attention discretely to the man’s reaction when the brief instrumental part of the song finally stopped to give way to Rose’s clear voice.

 

_I can’t hide the way I feel about you anymore_

_I can’t hold the hurt inside_

_keep the pain out of my eyes anymore_

Dezel had to suppress a smile when feeling the way Zaveid immediately tensed while listening to the song, indicating him that the lyrics wasn’t leaving him indifferent.

 

_My tears no longer waiting_

_my resistance ain’t that strong_

_My mind keeps recreating a life with you alone_

_And I’m tired of pretending_

_I don’t love you anymore_

 

 “Is something wrong, Zaveid?”, Dezel asked when Rose stopped singing and a brief instrumental part began, and Zaveid practically jumped when hearing his sudden question.

“What?”, he asked with a slight strained tone.

“Well, you look awfully tense”, Dezel shrugged casually before adding with pretended curiosity, “could it be because of the song?”

Dezel heard Zaveid gulp just before Rose began to sing again.

_Let me make one last appeal_

_to show you how I feel about you_

Dezel felt the tension that had settled between Zaveid and him increase even more, but still Zaveid didn’t make any comment.

_‘Cause there’s no one else I swear_

_holds a candle anywhere next to you_

 

And when seeing that the man didn’t plan to make it any time soon Dezel exhaled a resigned sigh, deciding that this time he would be the brave one.

_My heart can't take the beating_

 

“So you really don’t have the slightest idea…”

Dezel stopped leaning against the wall.

_not having you to hold_

 

“…about who could have asked for a song like this?”

Dezel turned to face Zaveid and slowly took a step closer to the man.

_A small voice keeps repeating deep inside my soul_

“…Well, in that case then…”

Dezel heard Zaveid’s breath hitch when he enclosed his arms around his neck.

_It says I can't keep pretending_

_I don't love you anymore_

 

“…I will have to give you a hint”

“Dez…”

Dezel sealed their lips together in a forceful kiss, taking opportunity that Zaveid’s mouth was still half-opened from his previous attempt of spelling his name to sneak his tongue inside, and to his relief and satisfaction Zaveid’s one automatically joined his, that long forgotten wet contact causing the pit of his stomach tighten in a familiar way while his body suffered a whole shudder when _finally_ Zaveid enclosed his arms around his lower back, forcing their bodies impossibly close.

“I love you, idiot. That’s what I’m trying to say”, Dezel exhaled, forcing himself to stop the kiss or otherwise he would get lost on those addicting lips without saying Zaveid all that he wanted to say.

Zaveid took a deep breath while settling one of his hands on the back of Dezel’s neck, beginning to caress his hair softly.

“Dezel, are you sure about this?”, Zaveid’s tone still carried some insecurity on it when speaking, which caused Dezel to sigh with exasperation.

“Of course I am, idiot. If I wasn’t do you think that I would have kissed you now? Or that I would have tried to kiss you yesterday? Although for the way _you_ clearly ignored me maybe it’s you the one who are not sure”

Zaveid chuckled when hearing Dezel’s accusing tone before hugging him again, and when he spoke Dezel was relieved when noticing that finally the hesitation on his tone was finally gone.

“No, Dezel, I don’t have any doubts about loving you. I’ve never had any since the moment you made me fall for you”

Dezel’s heart skipped a beat when hearing those words, the same way it always did in the past every time that Zaveid showed his affection in a verbal manner.

“And about ignoring you, I’m really sorry about that”, Zaveid apologized, “but I had assumed that it was going to take me much more to make you love me again. In fact…”, Zaveid’s tone turned slightly embarrassed, “…if I’m totally honest, a part of me was afraid of not being able to do it. So when yesterday I saw you clearly disposed to kiss me after just three weeks, I couldn’t help to think that maybe you were…”

“…forcing myself in order to thank you?”

Zaveid’s eyes snapped opened when hearing Dezel’s sarcastic tone.

“Damn, Dezel-chan, I didn’t know that you were a psychic!”

Dezel couldn’t help to laugh when hearing Zaveid’s impressed tone.

“And I’m not”, Dezel said with resignation while separating again in order to dig his finger on Zaveid’s chest accusatorily, “I’m just used to how idiot you can be sometimes, or how idiot you _pretend_ to be sometimes. Because I don’t believe that you haven’t realized before what my feelings for you are”

Zaveid sighed softly.

“Yeah, it’s true that during this last week I was pretty convinced that you could finally being loving me back”, Zaveid’s expression and tone turned serious, “but I thought that I didn’t deserve you to feel for me that way. Because after leaving you behind in the way I did, and after making you suffer, I think it’s unfair that… _ouch_!”

“Don’t you dare to begin to accuse yourself now that _I_ have finally stopped accusing you”, Dezel threatened after hitting Zaveid on the chest, “Yes, you left me behind. And yes, you made me suffer. But even if I’m blind I’m perfectly able to see how damn much you’ve suffered because of that decision as well, and how damn much you keep caring about me and loving me. And even if I still think that you should have done things differently, I’m tired of pretending that I haven’t long forgiven you for that”

Dezel took air and kept talking, obviously missing the way Zaveid’s eyes where shining in a long forgotten but also familiar way.

“In fact, as I already told you, no matter how angry I was with you, no matter how damn I wanted to see you in order to beat the crap out of you for having disappeared like that, at the end I’ve never been able to forget you, nor to stop loving you either. And I’m going to be stupid enough to keep trusting you when you say that you’re not going to leave me again, so stop making excuses already because you’ve won, idiot. Your seduction techniques of which you are always boasting have worked, so how much long are you planning to keep being there standing without doing anyth…?”

Suddenly Dezel felt his chin being grabbed and his head slightly raised just before his lips were captured in a passionate kiss that caused his head to go dizzy when Zaveid’s tongue met his again inside his wanting mouth, exploring his cavity and expertly re-discovering the spots that had always made him be weak on the knees.

Yes - Dezel thought while kissing Zaveid back as fervently -  damn, _yes_ , he had already lost the count of how many times he had dreamt to be kissed _like that_ again.

“I love you”, Zaveid whispered against his lips with such emotion that Dezel’s heart jumped inside his chest, a lump forming in his throat and causing his voice to tremble when responding with a shakier voice that he would have liked.

“Me too, idiot”

Dezel didn’t know how many times he had called Zaveid ‘idiot’ during those five minutes, but fortunately for the way Zaveid was smiling just before kissing him once again it seemed that the man couldn’t care less to be called that, as if he perfectly knew that Dezel’s rude words were just an attempt to hide how happy he was feeling after finally being together again.

They kept making out during some more minutes, sharing sometimes short but intense kisses and sometimes longer but calmer ones, taking turns to dominate the other one’s mouth while unconsciously competing to see who managed to obtain the most intense shudder from his partner, and when they finally had to stop to take air Dezel realized that it had been a while since Rose had finished singing, and that the noises of the audience were slowly decreasing, indicating them that people were beginning to abandon the tent.

“Maybe we should leave too”, Dezel commented after clearing his throat, “the rest could come at any moment”

Zaveid nodded while using his thumb to remove a little stain of saliva from the corner of Dezel’s lips softly.

“Yeah, you have a point there, but before I need to ask you something”, Dezel’s breath hitched when Zaveid began to whisper just on his ear, “I’ve just checked that now I can kiss you without the risk of obtaining a black eye but I was wondering…”, Dezel had so suppress a whine when Zaveid’s tone became purposely seductive, “…what other things I am allowed to do without ending hurt?”

Dezel blushed when hearing Zaveid’s question, but when he replied there was no hesitation on his answer, because the way his pants had become uncomfortably tighter just for his brief make out session didn’t leave any possibility of doubt about what he wanted.

“Everything”, he answered, trying not to blush even more while saying the next sincere but at the same time embarrassing words, “you can do everything to me”

Dezel was surprised when instead of the violent kiss that he had been expecting Zaveid didn’t move. And in fact, when the man talked there was astonishment on his voice.

“Wait…”, Zaveid looked at him in disbelief, “do you mean that you already want…?”

Dezel gulped, suddenly afraid of Zaveid not being on the same wavelength than him.

 “You don’t?”

Dezel’s tone came out cautious when making the question. Oh damn, maybe Zaveid didn’t plan to go that far yet?

However, his nervousness lasted less than a second because at that moment Zaveid let out a low groan before attacking his mouth in an even more passionate kiss than the previous ones they have already shared, and Dezel had to bite back a moan when feeling Zaveid’s obvious erection pressing against his as well hard lower half.

“Of course I want it”, Dezel shivered when hearing the unmistakable lust on Zaveid’s tone, “damn, I’ve been wanting this during all these years”

Dezel’s moan when Zaveid grinded their lower halves together was swallowed in time by Zaveid’s eager mouth. Damn, he hadn’t realized how much he had been desiring to be doing this with Zaveid until that precise moment, and he had to make a titanic effort to force Zaveid stop ravaging his mouth instead of surrendering to his most basic urges that incited him to allow the older man to take him right then and there.

“Inn”, he managed to exhale breathlessly, “let’s go to the inn”

Zaveid smiled against his lips and nodded.

“Lead the way, Dezel-chan”, Zaveid nibbled his ear softly, causing Dezel to suppress another whine, “I follow you”

Of course, Dezel hadn’t to be told twice.

* * *

Less than five minutes later they arrived at the inn, and after leaving the poor innkeeper a little confused when Zaveid winked at him while saying a cheery ‘ _no matter what you hear we’ll be fine so please don’t bother us’,_  they finally reached Dezel’s room. Or better said, they practically stomped on it.

They barely managed to make it inside before Dezel found himself with his back against the door and Zaveid over him, kissing him even more hungrily than before, and it didn’t pass much time until Dezel felt Zaveid’s hands sneaking under his upper clothes to touch his skin directly.

Dezel whined softly when feeling that familiar contact, and when realizing that Zaveid’s hands planned to keep ascending he made Zaveid stop momentarily the kiss to remove his jacket hurriedly, his green and white t-shirt following next with a fluid motion, the action causing Zaveid to groan appreciatively when seeing more of Dezel’s skin on full display.

“Damn, Dezel-chan, you should be an exhibitionist like me”, Zaveid settled his hands over his exposed abs before traveling up again his naked torso, stopping finally just over his chest, “It’s unfair that you keep these muscles hidden”

“Tsk, I know. But I do it so that you and only you can enjoy them”, Dezel replied with irony, placing a hand on the back of Zaveid’s neck before titling his head a little to the side to share another deep kiss that this time he dominated, his other hand settling on Zaveid’s bared lower back again.

“I like how that sounds”, Zaveid hummed with satisfaction before deviating his mouth to the side of Dezel’s neck, “after all it would be a bother that ladies began to stalk you after knowing what a hot body you have”

Dezel was about to protest saying that he should be the one in saying that but at that moment Zaveid bit his neck in his most sensitive spot, making him let his head fall backwards while moaning, and even if he knew that there was going to be a rather interesting mark adorning his neck the next morning, the way Zaveid was rotating his tongue over the bite was too good to be stopped, so he simply used the hand that was on Zaveid’s neck to encourage the older man to suck even harder, his body suffering a whole shudder when Zaveid complied.

“Oi, Dezel-chan…”, Zaveid said with an amused tone, “…it’s just me or you’re now even more sensitive than you used to be?”

Dezel felt his cheeks reddening a little, and although his first impulse was to deny it, he decided that it would be stupid. After all Zaveid was going to discover it anyway.

“Yeah, I am”, he admitted, averting his face to the side with certain embarrassment, “I suppose that it’s the result of having lost my eyesight”

Zaveid didn’t responded, he simply nodded in understanding, and for a moment Dezel was afraid of having ruined the mood with that answer. However, his fears disappeared when Zaveid resumed his attack on the other side of his neck while beginning to grind his hips against his, making him exhale an excited gasp.

“Sorry, Dezel, but…”, Dezel shivered when Zaveid licked the shell of his ear languidly slow, “…knowing that just incites me to make you cry even louder”

Zaveid incremented the pace of the grinding, and Dezel found himself immediately opening his legs more in order to give Zaveid more space to rub their still clothed crotches together, his fingers digging on Zaveid’s lower back more and more with every movement of their hips.

“ _Ah_ …Z-Zaveid…bed…”, Dezel exhaled after a couple of more minutes of wild frotting, because even it that continuous friction felt extremely well he thought that it was a pity to be wasting such a nice piece of furniture.

“Kay”, Zaveid agreed, and then to Dezel’s surprise the man grabbed him by the back of his thighs and raised him.

“O-oi, put me down, idiot!”, he exclaimed bright red, struggling to be on the floor again.

“Oh come on, let me be romantic and carry you to the bed”

Dezel was about to hit Zaveid because definitely he didn’t see the romanticism in practically dragging a 1,85 meters guy to a bed just before literally dropping him on it because Zaveid was unable to sustain his weight anymore.

“See? I’ve done it without problems”

Dezel couldn’t help to show a resigned smile when hearing Zaveid say that with a triumphant tone despite he was panting in an attempt to regain his breathing.

“Idiot, if you break your back by doing that I swear that…”

Dezel couldn’t finish his threat because at that moment Zaveid climbed over him and captured Dezel’s mouth again, dominating the searing kiss this time while his hands came to settle on his chest again but this time just over his nipples, and the older man chuckled when Dezel’s body arched automatically despite the still feathery contact.

“I’ve always loved how honest your body is”

Dezel felt his own member throbbing inside his pants when hearing Zaveid’s low voice, because he had never been able to admit it aloud but Zaveid’s sexy talk had always aroused him a lot.

Dezel exhaled a needy gasp when Zaveid ducked his head and sucked one of his nipples, keeping his hand on the other one to rotate it between forefinger and thumb. Dezel bit his bottom lip in an attempt to prevent too loud sounds, one of his hands settling over Zaveid’s shoulder and the other grabbing the sheets with more force that he would have liked, because damn, he had always thought that to feel so damn good just for having his chest caressed was a little embarrassing, even if that had always been a weakness of his.

At that moment Zaveid used his teeth to pull from his already hardened nipple, the sudden feeling causing Dezel to exhale a breathy moan of surprise.

“O-oi, don’t do that without warning!”, Dezel protested, even if the action itself had been unexpectedly pleasant.

“Don’t try to suppress you noises and I won’t”, Zaveid replied with a smile, rotating his tongue over the recently abused nipple as an apology, causing Dezel to whine again, “after all the others are not here so you don’t have to worry about bothering them”

Dezel was about to reply that the other guests could be bothered but since at that moment he felt Zaveid incorporate before settling his hands over the waistband of his pants he immediately forgot what he was going to say.

“You know, you sometimes criticize that my pants are tight but yours aren’t any better”, Zaveid joked after finally finishing removing them.

“Tsk, please, the ones you wear are at least two sizes smaller than it should”, Dezel snapped back, removing his undergarments while Zaveid finished removing the rest of their clothes.

“Hey, that’s not true!”, Zaveid protested with a laugh, “okay, maybe _one_ more size would be fine as well but…”

This time it was Zaveid the one who couldn’t finish his protest because at that moment Dezel pulled him by the arm, making the older Wind Seraph end facing up on the bed.

Taking opportunity of Zaveid’s being taken by surprise Dezel crawled over him to straddle his lap and kissed him hard and deep. Then, he reached down with one of his hand to grab Zaveid’s hot and more than half-erected member, and after giving a couple of tentative strokes that made the older Wind Seraph hum appreciatively inside his mouth Dezel aligned it with his own member in order to initiate an undulant movement back and forth, the now direct friction causing both men to exhale respective groans.

“God damn, an aggressive Dezel is way better than I had imagined…”, Zaveid exhaled in a delighted ragged tone while beginning to buck his hips up against Dezel as well, his hands resting on Dezel’s hips as mere support, since the younger Wind Seraph didn’t seem to need any help to move against him.

“Shut up”, Dezel said just before tongue-kissing Zaveid while his hands roamed viciously over the older man’s defined pectorals, enjoying the way those hard muscles shivered lightly under his touch because of the arousal, and even if Dezel felt a little embarrassed for being acting so shamelessly he couldn’t help it. He had been craving to be touching Zaveid’s like that for years. And damn Rose hadn’t lied when saying that Zaveid was even hotter than five years ago. He didn’t need to see to realize that the man had gained just the necessary amount of extra muscle during those years.

“Damn, Dezel, your hands are driving me crazy”, Zaveid groaned, the grip on Dezel’s hips incrementing the pressure, “keep moving against me like that and we’ll both regret it”

Dezel couldn’t help to grin with satisfaction when hearing that Zaveid wasn’t joking.

“Well, maybe that just indicates that you have lost practice with the years, Zaveid-chan”

Dezel finished the sentence grabbing Zaveid’s bottom lip between his teeth, the action making Zaveid’s fingers dig on him to the point that it was almost painful, and he could perfectly picture the way the older man was looking at him right now through half-closed eyes.

Damn, Dezel had almost forgot how damn good it felt to tease Zaveid like that, even if he ended regretting it because most part of the times it was Zaveid the one who ended winning their ‘teasing battle’. And for the way Zaveid growled low in his throat just before incorporating at a fearsome speed to force his back against the mattress again, it seemed that that time was one of those times.

“In that case…”, Dezel’s heart began to beat faster in his chest when hearing Zaveid speak in a purposely casual tone while forcing his legs flexed and opened, leaving him completely exposed, “…let me practice a little to see if I recover my touch”

Dezel’s body arched from the bed while moaning loudly when without waiting a single second longer Zaveid engulfed his member completely, beginning to immediately press his tongue around his most sensitive spots while beginning to bob his head with a steady but firm rhythm.

 _God_ , Dezel was just able to think while grabbing the messed sheets under him until his knuckles turned white, desperately trying to get a hold onto something. God, he had thought that he remembered well how good Zaveid had always been with his mouth but at that moment, while feeling Zaveid’s warm cavity enveloping and releasing his member over and over, he realized that his memories didn’t make justice to the reality. And he didn’t know if it was because the time that had passed or because he was more sensitive than in the past but he could feel pretty close to his limit even when Zaveid hadn’t been even one minute sucking him off.

“Z-Zaveid…”, Dezel exhaled, settling one of his hands over Zaveid’s moving head, “Zaveid, please, stop…”

Dezel could feel Zaveid smiling around his member just before the man grabbed his hips and began to make him move back and forth, as if he was trying that Dezel fucked his mouth.

“ _Ngh_ …oh damn…”, Dezel moaned incoherently, his toes curling over the mattress, because damn, by doing that Zaveid was making him go even deeper on his throat making everything more pleasant if possible, “Zaveid, damn, if you keep going I’ll come…”

“And you don’t want that?”, Zaveid asked with a fake questioning tone, sucking purposely hard the tip on Dezel’s member, making the younger Wind Seraph suffer another shudder, “then what do you want, Dezel?”

If Dezel wasn’t so busy trying to stop himself from coming he would have hit Zaveid, because he knew exactly what Zaveid wanted him to say. But well, since he had begun all that by teasing Zaveid first he at least owed the man that satisfaction.

“I want… _ngh_ …I want to come with you inside me…”

Dezel knew that his answer had been well received when Zaveid groaned against his member, and although Dezel feared for a moment that the vibration that came with Zaveid groan caused him to finish he managed to hold back.

“Well…”, Zaveid kissed softly the tip of Dezel’s member before crawling over the panting Wind Seraph, “do you think that I passed the practice exam or should I do a retake?”

Dezel couldn’t help to exhale a labored chuckle when hearing Zaveid’s extremely satisfied tone.

“Tsk, you’ve managed to pass”, he managed to reply, but his attempt of condescending tone came out so tired that it lost all his effect and just caused Zaveid to laugh.

“I’ll take that as a: ‘it’s been incredible, Zaveid. You’re the god of the blowjobs’”

“For goodness sake, Zaveid, couldn’t you have come out with a better alias than _that one_?”

Zaveid burst out laughing after hearing Dezel’s tone. He lowered his head to kiss Dezel, and although this time the kiss began soft and calm it ended becoming more and more intense, until at the end more than a kiss it looked like a rather frenetic dance of tongues, and the way Zaveid’s hands had gradually traveled down from his hips until being grabbing his ass didn’t go unnoticed by Dezel.

“Oi, Zaveid…”

“Yeah?”

“Umh…you know…”, Dezel cleared his throat. Damn, where had it gone his previous bluntness?, “…well, let’s say that it’s been a while since I did something _down there_ so maybe it takes me some time to…”

Zaveid interrupted him with such an intense kiss that Dezel immediately forgot his nervousness, focusing just on how good Zaveid’s lips felt against his own.

“Yeah, I have guessed it”, Zaveid said with a smile, “do you need help with it or do you prefer to do it yourself?”

Dezel averted his face to the side, thinking about the two options.

It won’t take him much to decide himself, so after gulping he grabbed Zaveid’s right hand and approached it to his mouth in order to take his index and ring fingers in his mouth, coating them generously with his own saliva, and even if he couldn’t help to blush because of the obvious eroticism that that action carried, the way Zaveid inhaled sharply was enough to convince him that he had taken the right choice.

“Okay, in that case turn around and get on fours”, Zaveid after clearing his throat, probably in order that his voice sounded normal again, “it will be less uncomfortable that way”

After Zaveid incorporated Dezel immediately adopted the position that Zaveid had suggested, and when feeling Zaveid adopting a kneeled position just behind him Dezel regretted for a moment his choice because that way he couldn’t feel Zaveid as much as he would have felt him in case of being face to face.

“You okay?”

Dezel almost jumped. Damn, he was never going stop admiring Zaveid’s ability to immediately detect when he was feeling uneasy.

“Y-yeah, I am”, the silence that followed indicated Dezel that Zaveid wasn’t buying it, “okay, in this position it’s more complicated to feel you so it makes me nervous”

After a couple of seconds Dezel exhaled a gasp when suddenly Zaveid leant forward and deposited a soft kiss on his back, while enclosing his arm around him to settle it just over his now a little tense stomach.

“I’m right here, okay?”, Zaveid deposited another reassuring kiss on his back, “so now just focus on relax”

Dezel took a deep breath and nodded, and thanks to Zaveid’s reassuring words and the hand that was beginning to caress his stomach he just felt a little discomfort when Zaveid’s first digit pressed inside.

“Wow, how tight…”

Dezel couldn’t help to let out a short embarrassed chuckle when hearing Zaveid’s surprised tone.

“I’ve told you that it has been a while”, Dezel said, his voice a little strained now that Zaveid’s finger was entering deeper.

“And how much time is that ‘a while’ exactly?”

Dezel blushed, but being quiet only made the squelching sounds of Zaveid’s finger inside him louder so he answered relatively fast.

“Four years. Or four and half, I don’t exactly remember”

Dezel felt Zaveid shivering against him, and he was about to ask if there was something wrong when suddenly Zaveid leant forward until his chest was touching his back.

“Then we could consider that I’m taking your virginity for a second time”, Zaveid practically purred on his ear, causing Dezel to blush even more while suffering an involuntary shudder.

“Idiot…”, he simply said, but the truth was that Zaveid’s comment had aroused him because he could feel Zaveid’s finger slipping inside and out way more easily, so when after some seconds Zaveid added the second digit it was just a little painful, although of course the fact that Zaveid had begun to rub his nipples with the hand that was not using to prepare him was an extremely good distraction.

“You okay?”, Zaveid asked after Dezel tensed a little when Zaveid began to scissor his fingers inside.

“Y-yeah…”, Dezel breathed out, whining when at that moment Zaveid twitched his again erected nipple, “…yeah, now it almost doesn’t hur…”

And then, Zaveid’s fingers finally touched that place inside him that caused Dezel to arch his body when a hit of unexpected pleasure hit him. Damn. Oh damn, he had totally forgot how damn good it felt to be touched there.

“You know, Dezel-chan, maybe you are right and I’ve lost practice”, Zaveid said with a triumphant tone that clearly contradicted his words, “five years ago I always managed to find your sweet spot more easily”

“God…”, Dezel could simply moan when Zaveid began to hit that place over and over again, “oh damn… _ah_ …!”

After just a couple of more movements of Zaveid’s fingers Dezel finally began to grind his ass back, automatically trying to take Zaveid’s digits deeper in an attempt to keep reaching that place inside him, and when the third finger finally joined the other two Dezel welcomed it despite of the pain, because the filling sensation mixed with Zaveid’s ability not to miss his prostrate in any single thrust was clearly winning. In fact, Dezel realized suddenly, the whole experience was being _too_ good because again he could feel his orgasm approaching too soon.

“Zaveid…”, Dezel reached back to grab Zaveid’s wrist.

“What’s wrong, Dezel?”, Zaveid asked with sudden concern, immediately removing his fingers, “oi, have I hurt you or someth…?”

Dezel’s answer was turn around fast to hook a hand on the back of Zaveid’s neck in order to crash their lips together in a heated kiss that made Zaveid groan with surprise.

“Wow, how eager…”, Zaveid exhaled a breathless chuckle when Dezel finally released him, “okay okay, I get it, enough with the foreplay, but before doing anything more let me go to the bathroom to see if I can find something to use as lube”

“It’s not necessary”

Zaveid exhaled a sigh full of patience while straightening into a full kneeled position.

“Dezel-chan I’m not trying to boast but I’m not precisely small, so if we don’t use lube even if I’ve just prepared you rather well it’s going to hur… _ah_!”

Zaveid’s eyes shut closed tightly and his head fell slightly backwards when without warning Dezel took him in his mouth in one go, initiating an almost frenetic pace while using his tongue fast and hard around Zaveid’s member.

“ _Fuck_ …”, Zaveid’s hand flied to grab Dezel’s head while his hips began to softly thrust against Dezel’s more than willing mouth, “oh fuck, you are right, screw the lube… _ngh_!”

Dezel felt his own member twitching when Zaveid’s next groan indicated him that the man had just bitten his bottom lip, an action that he only did when he was deeply aroused, and his pretext of being sucking Zaveid just to replace the missing lube lost all its credibility when he began to deepthroat Zaveid and gulp just when reaching the base of his member, effectively causing the older man to increment the grip on his hair while growling louder. It seemed that Zaveid kept being weak to his lack of gag reflex, Dezel thought with satisfaction.

“Damn… _ngh_ …oh damn _Dezel_ …”

Dezel identified the warning on Zaveid’s groan just at the same time that he tasted the first drops of precum in his mouth, so he immediately released Zaveid’s member.

For a moment he expected to be scolded for having made Zaveid almost come - thing that, of course, didn’t make Dezel feel proud at all - but for the way Zaveid was breathing heavily it seemed that he was still trying to recover.

“God, definitely you haven’t lost your touch”, Zaveid exhaled with an honest impressed tone, “okay, I was mistaken: you’ve definitely taken the title of ‘god of the blowjobs’ from me”

“Oh, what an immense honor”, Dezel said with such irony that Zaveid laughed just before capture his lips again.

After sharing a couple of more kisses Dezel turned around again to get into his previous position, and when feeling Zaveid’s hands on his ass again he couldn’t help to gulp with nervousness.

Finally, they were going to do it.

“I know that you are not very comfortable with this posture now but I think it’s better to begin with it until you get used to it”

“Okay”, Dezel said, his voice a little strained despite his efforts to keep it calm.

At that moment he felt Zaveid separating his buttocks to expose more his entrance, so he took a deep breath trying to relax, but to his surprise instead of beginning to enter him immediately Zaveid leant over him again to deposit a soft kiss on his shoulder

“Relax for me, okay?”

Zaveid’s tender words caused Dezel’s nervousness to subside a little, and after exhaling another sigh he nodded, allowing Zaveid to slowly begin to push inside.

The first stretch was rather painful, more painful than Dezel remembered it was going to be because five years ago they have always been sexually active so there hadn’t be any particular time in which he felt actual pain while doing it with Zaveid. However, right then he was feeling really uncomfortable, his hands had turned into fists on the mattress and a part of him was tempted to tell Zaveid to push back. Damn, it was hilarious. This time looked more like his first time than the real one.

“How are you doing?”

Dezel felt his heart skip a beat when hearing Zaveid’s tone, because even if the man tried to speak naturally it was evident the effect that his tight and practically virgin entrance was provoking around his member.

“Not bad”, Dezel ended saying, and Zaveid seemed to catch his lie because he exhaled an apologetic laugh.

“Sorry”, Zaveid kissed his back softly while reaching around with one of his hands to begin to stroke Dezel’s neglected member, the action causing Dezel to let out a gasp, “I’ll go slow so bear with the pain a little”

Dezel nodded shakily, his eyes shut closed because of the stimulation Zaveid was giving him with his hand, and thanks to his continuous ministration Zaveid could finish entering him completely more or less easily.

After being settled inside Zaveid didn’t move. He just kept masturbating Dezel’s member while giving occasional licks and bites over his back, and after almost half-a-minute Dezel felt prepared enough to give a small thrust back, indicating Zaveid that he was allowed to move.

Zaveid initiated an extremely slow rhythm, pulling out just a little before pushing inside Dezel’s still quivering entrance, and thanks to his caring movements Dezel got used relatively fast to Zaveid’s length inside him, so it didn’t pass much time until soft gasps began to escape from his gritted teeth.

Of course Zaveid noticed that, and with the only warning of his hands traversing from Dezel’s buttocks to his hips the older man incremented a little the pace, the action making Dezel exhale a louder gasp while finally beginning to meet back the until then swallow thrusts. Finally it was beginning to feel good. Really good.

“Your legs are trembling, Dezel”, Zaveid pointed out with a shaky tone. Damn, how much was he holding back, “is it for nervousness or for pleasure?”

“B-both…”, Dezel exhaled, his hands slowly relaxing again over the mattress, “…so you can go faster if you wan… _ah_!”

Dezel moaned when Zaveid complied without letting him finish the sentence, and now that the pain was nowhere to be found Dezel could finally focus on the details that he had missed. Like the slight tickles that Zaveid’s long hair was causing on his back, or the low grunts that Zaveid was exhaling with every thrust, or the occasional harder grip of Zaveid’s fingers on his hips when Dezel’s entrance tightened against his member, unconsciously at first but then on purpose when realizing the effect that the action caused on the man.

“Dezel…”, Zaveid groaned one of the times that his member was deliciously squeezed between Dezel’s walls, “…Dezel bend down”

“What?”, Dezel managed to ask a little brokenly, but instead of explaining himself Zaveid just settled one of his hands over his back and pushed him down hard, the unexpected action causing Dezel to fall forward onto the mattress, his forehead and forearms flat on it.

“O-oi!”, Dezel protested while blushing, since the new posture made his ass be more raised towards Zaveid in an even more exposed position, “what do you think you’re… _AH_ …!”

Dezel grabbed the mattress with force while all his body shook violently when Zaveid hit his prostrate with the next thrust, thanks to the new angle.

“I thought it was obvious what we are doing”, Zaveid purred with a light joking tone, licking his lips with arousal when seeing the way Dezel’s body squirmed in pleasure under him, and since Dezel was extremely busy rocking his hips back to keep feeling the awesome feeling of Zaveid’s member slamming against his sweat spot he didn’t bother to think in a proper reply.

Damn, Dezel thought to himself incoherently. Oh damn, again his memories didn’t make justice to the reality. Having sex with Zaveid was _way_ better than he remembered.   

“Z-Zaveid… _ah_ …oh god…”

Dezel heard Zaveid groan behind him just before stopping feeling his hot member inside him. However, the frustrating emptiness didn’t last too much because Zaveid maneuvered his body so that his back was against the bed again, and after hooking both of his legs on the crooks of his elbows Zaveid ducked to capture his mouth in a breathtaking kiss while entering him in one powerful stroke, resuming immediately his previous rough rhythm.

“ _AH_ …!”, Dezel moaned loudly, his body arching against Zaveid and his fingers digging on Zaveid’s naked shoulders  when his prostrate was rubbed again with frightening precision, the position allowing Zaveid to penetrate him even deeper, harder, “…oh god… _yes…there_!”

“Dezel…”, Zaveid managed to say between heated kisses, “…god, how I’ve missed this…”

“Me too…”, Dezel breathed out, the overwhelming pleasure that he was feeling throwing his usual shyness away, “…I love you”

Dezel felt Zaveid’s body shivering over him before attacking his mouth again.

“I love you too, Dezel. More than anything”

They resumed their desperate kissing once again, but since then on it didn’t pass much time until Dezel felt that familiar heat assenting on his stomach, indicating him the imminence of his orgasm, and for the way Zaveid’s deep groans were becoming quicker and more labored it seemed that he was approaching his limit as well.

“Zaveid…”, Dezel released Zaveid’s shoulder with one of his hands to grab his now again erected member in order to masturbate it at the same pace than Zaveid was using to fuck him, “…I’m not going to last…”

“Me neither”, Zaveid exhaled, and this time it was Dezel’s nails what dug on Zaveid’s skin when Zaveid began to pound into him even more vigorously with all the strength he still had left,  “inside?”

Dezel nodded almost frantically.

“Yeah… _ngh_ …I want to feel you”

He knew that he was going to regret to have said that with such an embarrassing begging voice but at that moment, when hearing the low grunt that Zaveid exhaled thanks to those words, Dezel just felt incredibly aroused.

Just a couple of thrusts later Zaveid finally climaxed with a ragged groan, his powerful body shivering because of the intensity of his ecstasy, and the warm sensation of being filled threw Dezel against his orgasm as well, making him come rather explosively between both of their stomachs.

Dezel felt Zaveid finally release his legs just before practically collapsing over him, his heavy pants teasing his ear and his not-precisely-light body practically suffocating him, but he found himself not caring, and in fact his only reaction was to enclose his arms again around Zaveid’s body, welcoming his warmth and enjoying his accelerated heartbeat against his chest.

“Oi, now that we are together again don’t you dare to die on me”, Dezel said when he had regained enough air to speak, causing Zaveid to exhale a laugh.

“Don’t worry, I don’t plan to”, Zaveid said with a smile. He incorporated just enough to share a languid kiss with Dezel before lying down next to him, his position almost the same than the time of his real first time, “how are you feeling?”

“Sore”, Dezel said honestly causing Zaveid to laugh, because now that his previous sexual frenzy had settled down he was beginning to feel the results of their wild love making.

“But in a bad way or in a good way?”

Dezel snorted while turning to his side with effort.

“Zaveid, how does exactly someone feel sore in a good way?”

“Well, it’s easy”, Zaveid settled an arm around his waist and got even closer him, “just remember what an awesome sex we’ve just had and I’m sure that you won’t mind the pain anymore”

Dezel couldn’t help to chuckle when hearing Zaveid’s reasoned words, and then, suddenly, he felt a lump forming on his throat.

“Oi, are you alright?”, Zaveid asked with concern, misinterpreting his expression, “hey, if it’s hurting that much I can go to the pharmacy and buy something to…”

Dezel cut Zaveid’s worried words by hugging him tightly, hiding his face in the crook of his neck.

“Dezel?”, Zaveid asked with an unsure tone.

“I thought that we were never going to be like this again”, Dezel’s muffled voice was barely audible, but Zaveid managed to hear them just fine because he smiled tenderly just before returning the hug.

“Well, we are”, Zaveid said softly before speaking again with his usual mocking tone, “heh, I told you that I planned to use your bed for funnier purposes than sleeping”

Dezel exhaled a short laugh, and after managing to push back the tears that had been about to escape him he faced Zaveid again.

“Actually this is not my bed”, he pointed out, “It’s just a bed of the inn”

“Mmm, you’re certainly right”, Zaveid thought to himself, “but don’t worry: the moment that we come back to the camp, the bed of our caravan is going to be our first stop”

Dezel couldn’t help to when hearing the way Zaveid’s tone had gradually become purposely seductive.

“Speaking about the camp…”, Dezel’s tone turned concerned, “…do you think that the rest are worried? After all we’ve left without saying anything”

“Nah, they aren’t. They know perfectly what we are doing and where”

Dezel frowned.

“And why do you know that?”

After a brief pause Dezel felt Zaveid turn around to reach down from the bed in order to recover his abandoned pants from the floor.

“Because there was a note stuck on the door when we’ve entered. I haven’t mentioned it before because I didn’t want to ruin the mood buuut I suppose that you can know what it says now”

And then Zaveid began to read loud and clear, and Dezel was gradually becoming redder and redder.

 

_Jeez, IT WAS TIME ALREADY! (yep, I’m copying myself) :P Well, at least for tonight we’ll be able to sleep well ;)_

_Rose_

\---

 _If you dare to break up AGAIN I’ll really beat you up with my umbrella, baaakas -.-‘’_ _(yes, I’m copying myself too. Blame Rose for that)_

_Edna_

\---

_FINALLY.  I’m so happy that the song worked so well. You better make out for all the time you’ve been apart ^^_

_Lailah_

_\---_

_Congratulations! After all you’ve been through you deserved to be happy together :)_

_Sorey_

\---

_Sorry, Sorey is forcing me to write something as well -.- so spend a good night._

_Mikleo_

 

“Seriously…”

Zaveid laughed when hearing Dezel’s resigned tone, although the truth was that a mini lump had settled again on Dezel’s throat after hearing the words of his crazy but also adorable friends.

“Yeah, they are the best”, Zaveid said with a fond tone before leaving the note on the nightstand, “and now that I’ve re-read Lailah-chan’s note, about the song…”

Dezel’s body tensed against his will.

“What?”, he said with a suspicious tone, afraid of what Zaveid was going to say.

“Oi, what’s with that defensive posture?”, Zaveid asked with amusement, enclosing his arm around Dezel again, “I was just wondering if you have been the one in thinking the lyrics”

Dezel blushed intensely, and after clearing his throat he spoke with a still defensive tone.

“Y-yeah, Rose and Lailah thought the music but the lyrics are mine, any problem with it?”

Zaveid laughed when hearing Dezel’s almost sulking tone.

“For goodness sake, do you want to relax already?”, Zaveid said, nudging his nose against Dezel’s one playfully, “I’ve loved the song. And I knew that the lyrics were yours because I don’t see Lailah-chan using the expression ‘ _hold a candle_ ’ in a romantic song. Rose-chan maybe, but definitely not Lailah”

“Tsk, I dare you to make a song in a couple of hours”, Dezel snapped causing Zaveid to laugh again, but he had finally relaxed again because he was really glad that Zaveid liked it. He didn’t have to forget to thank the girls for their inestimable help.

After finally cleaning themselves, both Wind Seraph crawled under the sheets, and Dezel immediately curled against Zaveid. Damn, he had missed to be able to sleep like that.

“I suppose that tomorrow we’ll begin the travel to Ladylake, right?”, Dezel asked.

“No, we’ll part the day after tomorrow. After all the animals have to rest and we have to make sure that we are well supplied of water so that the Lakehorses are able to endure the travel. And that means…”, Dezel’s breath hitched when Zaveid began to speak just in his ear, “that we have all this night and all tomorrow to ourselves…”

Dezel whined when Zaveid nibbled his ear. The truth is that he had thought exactly the same thing but of course he was not going to say it aloud.

“Idiot”, he said, but he kissed Zaveid with a tiny smile, “at least let me recover tonight. We’ll see about tomorrow”

“Great”, Zaveid chuckled happily, kissing Dezel again, and the younger Wind Seraph was about to finally go to sleep when suddenly Zaveid spoke again with an expectant tone, “but before going to sleep could you do me a favor?”

Dezel nodded immediately, not feeling like denying Zaveid anything right then.

“Please, could you show me your eyes? It’s been a while since the last time I saw them”

Dezel gulped, tension invading his body again. Damn, among all the things that Zaveid could have asked he really wanted to see his horrible lifeless eyes?

“Tsk, you’ll be disappointed. They have lost all their green”, Dezel said averting his face, insulting himself when his voice faltered a little, but Zaveid’s only reaction was to chuckle softly before settling his hand over his cheek tenderly.

“Still, I would like to see them”, Zaveid’s hand traveled from his cheek to his forehead, stopping just over his bangs, “so…can I?”

Dezel let out a sigh but at the end he nodded, and when Zaveid finally retired his bangs in order to expose his eyes, he forced himself to open them, darkness keeping being there as always.

He heard Zaveid gulp, and after some seconds when the older man kept being silent Dezel clicked his tongue.

“See? I’ve told you. They are not worth to se…”

“They are beautiful”, Dezel’s heart skipped a beat when hearing the sincerity on Zaveid’s voice, “I was right: your eyes keep being the most beautiful that I’ve ever seen. And even if they are not green anymore now they are bright grey. Exactly like Lafarga’s ones”

Dezel gulped again,

“Really?”, he asked almost in a whisper. He had got used to have them closed all the time and he had never dared to ask Rose or Lailah how his eyes looked, afraid of detecting an unpleasant reaction on them.

“Really”, Zaveid’s smile was heard in his voice, “so yes, Dezel. They are totally worth to see”

Dezel bit his bottom lip in a useless attempt to stop his trembling, and when realizing that this time he wasn’t going to win over the third lump that that night had settled on his throat his simply hugged Zaveid again.

“Thank you”, he simply said. Not just for what Zaveid had said about his eyes, but also for everything. Especially for being there with him again.

“You’re welcome, Dezel”, Zaveid whispered, kissing his naked shoulder with tenderness, “I love you. And this time, I’m not leaving. You have my word”

Dezel tightened his embrace before exhaling a soft ‘me too’, and when he finally fell asleep Zaveid’s arms were still surrounding him almost possessively, as if making clear that this time, he was not going anywhere. At least, not without him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And finally, they are together ^^ And as always, every time that I try to write a hot and wild sex scene it ends coming more fluffy than I had initially intended but I hope that you have liked it nevertheless :)
> 
> At this point, I estimate that no more than four-five chapters remain to finish this fic, and since I think that with this chapter the story has reached a rather good point I’m going to take a while to try to update my other fics. Concretely my AoKaga fic xD And I still owe a reader a side story of my ToX fic. And I haven’t forgotten either that I promised to do a fic of Sorey and Mikleo first time. Besides, during this summer I’m going to visit a friend who is studying aboard so I suppose that until the end of it I won’t be able to update…
> 
> Of course this doesn’t mean that I’m going to abandon this fic. It’s just that maybe it takes more than usual to update, so to the ones who read this fic don’t worry: the Windriders will have his revenge against Hedalf and Symonne :) 
> 
> As always, thanks a lot for the comments and don’t hesitate in keep telling me what you think ^^


	12. One month

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this update has taken me longer than the others because I’ve had a rather busy summer and because I finally updated my other fic that had been abandoned for eight months ^^U
> 
> WARNING: SMUT and SPOILERS of the game. Just in case someone hasn't finished it yet :)

_“Not this time! I’m gonna kill her!”_

_“What?!”_

_“You mustn’t...! There is no other way…No! He’s broken the pact?!”_

_“Dezel!”_

_“Finally! Finally I can kill you! DIE!”_

Dezel woke up exhaling a strangled gasp, the violence of his awakening making him end in a sitting position, and even if Zaveid was someone who usually fell into a really deep sleep that time he woke up immediately after detecting Dezel’s anxiety.

“Oi, Dezel”, Zaveid incorporated as well, “what’s wrong?”

 Dezel didn’t answer, still trying to normalize his too accelerated breathing. He pressed a trembling hand against his chest and let out a relieved sigh when discovering that everything was fine. That nothing was piercing through him.

“Dezel”

The younger Wind Seraph jumped on the bed when feeling Zaveid’s hand over his shoulder, the familiar contact making him come back to reality completely.

“Sorry, I…”, Dezel gulped, using the back of his hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead, “it was just a dream”

Zaveid sighed softly. He grabbed the back of Dezel’s neck and leant forward to deposit a soft kiss on his temple.

“Yeah, but a bad one for the way you’ve almost caused me a heart-attack”

Zaveid ended the sentence with an exaggerated tone that caused Dezel to chuckle.

“I’m sorry”, he repeated, trying to adopt a reassuring tone, “I’m fine now. Let’s sleep again”

“Don’t you want to tell me about it?”

Dezel averted his face, hesitating.

“It’s a really weird dream”

Dezel felt Zaveid’s smile in his next words.

“Dezel-chan, please, you don’t want to know what a truly weird dream is. With how pervert I am I beat you for sure”

Dezel chuckled again nervously before talking,

“Okay, umh…”, Dezel scratched the back of his head, trying to put in order his thoughts, “in the dream we were fighting against Symonne. She had created some kind of strange violet monster and was attacking us. Well, all of us but you”

“Oh, so I’m not important enough to appear in _your_ dream”

Dezel smiled when hearing Zaveid’s fake offended tone.

“Idiot”, he simply said bumping his shoulder against Zaveid’s, and for the way the older man chuckled softly Dezel knew that Zaveid had understood that with that insult he was saying: ‘ _you know that’s not true. You know you’re the most important one_ ’

“Sorry, keep talking”, Zaveid apologized for the interruption kissing Dezel’s shoulder softly, letting the younger Wind Seraph continue.

 “Well, apparently in the dream Sorey and Rose had some kind of…power that allowed them to fuse with Edna, Mikleo, Lailah and me in order to fight, so Sorey did that with Edna and Mikleo to try to beat Symonne. However, I…”, Dezel’s hands turned into fists unconsciously, “I didn’t want to beat her. I wanted to _kill_ her. So I somehow fused with Rose against her will to attack Symonne directly. And then at that moment she…”, Dezel gulped and continued, his voice trembling now, “…she made Lafarga’s face appear from inside the monster, as if he had been swallowed by it. I got completely paralyzed and I wasn’t able to move at all. And then Symonne attacked Rose and I while the rest was shouting and then we…”

Dezel’s more and more confusing speech was interrupted when Zaveid enclosed an arm around his shoulders to pressed his own body tightly against him.

“It was a dream, Dezel. It was just a dream”

Dezel let out a deep breath and nodded, letting himself sink into Zaveid’s warmth that always managed to put him at ease when nothing else worked, and as he was expecting the extremely bad sensation that the dream (or better said the nightmare) had left on him slowly began to vanish.

“I know that it doesn’t have any sense at all”, Dezel muttered, “but at that moment it looked incredibly real”

Zaveid kissed Dezel’s temple again softly.

“I suppose that you have mixed all the emotions of these two days together with the fact that we are really close to face Hedalf and Symonne again”

“Yeah, I get that, but I would seriously prefer to dream things more normal than we fusing with Sorey and Rose.

Zaveid chuckled when hearing Dezel’s irritated tone before shrugging.

“Well, there is also the possibility that what you’ve dreamt is some kind of alternative universe in which Sorey-chan and Rose-chan are powerful saviors”

 Dezel snorted.

“Yeah, that’s really probable”, he said with irony, “and if they are the saviors what are we then?”

“You and me?”, Dezel was about to rectify saying that he was referring to the rest of the Windriders when Zaveid spoke, “lovers, of course. I don’t think that there exists a single universe in which I am able to love anyone but you”

 Dezel gulped, feeling his heart stop momentarily. Damn bastard, how was he able to say those things as if it was nothing?

“Tsk, you and your cheesy lines…”

Zaveid smiled with amusement because despite Dezel’s words the hard kiss that the younger Wind Seraph gave him was a clear evidence of how much he deeply liked those ‘cheesy lines’.

“Hey, maybe I am now Zaveid ‘of the Promise’ but that doesn’t mean that Zaveid ‘the Ladykiller’ has gone forever”

Dezel shook his head while smiling.

“Yeah, you don’t say”, Dezel said with a resigned tone entering the bed again and recovering his previous sleeping position, with his back turned towards Zaveid, “come on, Zaveid ‘of the Promise’ and ex-Ladykiller. We still have some hours until waking up so…”

Dezel’s sentence ended with a surprised sigh when Zaveid deposited a soft kiss on the side of his neck, the contact so feathery that it was almost ticklish.

“Zaveid?”, Dezel ventured when feeling the older Wind Seraph lie down again and his hard chest connecting with his back, “oi, what are you…?”

This time Dezel let out a gasp when Zaveid bit his shoulder, his stomach tightening involuntarily even if the action itself had been rather gentle.

“Obviously, giving you a good night kiss, Dezel-chan”

The way Zaveid’s lips brushed Dezel’s ear when speaking together with the sensual voice he was using caused Dezel to shiver against his will, his desire for going to sleep again being immediately replaced by another completely different one.

“Tsk, good night kiss my ass”, Dezel snarled turning his head to the side to effectively capture Zaveid’s lips in a passionate kiss that made the older man exhale a groan that went directly to Dezel’s lower half, and even if Dezel had in mind to shut Zaveid up with that kiss to keep reproaching him for his teasing, when feeling Zaveid’s tongue slipping inside his mouth his resolve evaporated, and Dezel could just get lost in the great feeling of Zaveid’s lips moving so perfectly against his own. Damn, to hell with sleeping. He wasn’t even tired to begin with.

“ _Dezel_ …”

Zaveid whispering hoarsely his name before sucking at his neck caused Dezel to reach back with his hand to grab the back of Zaveid’s head, tangling his fingers in the older man long hair while gasping again, excited because of how needy Zaveid had sounded. He felt Zaveid’s hands begin to ascend slowly through his front until reaching his chest, where they stopped to grab both of their nipples between forefinger and thumb.

Dezel automatically arched his body against Zaveid’s fingers when this one began to rotate them. He whined when Zaveid pinched his sensitive buds, and that sexy noise caused Zaveid to grunt with arousal against Dezel’s sensitive skin. Zaveid kissed Dezel again fiercely, their tongues joining again in a frenetic dance while beginning to reach down with the hand that wasn’t working on Dezel’s chest to bring his nipples to full hardness to begin to rub Dezel’s crotch with a steady but firm pace.

Dezel groaned against Zaveid’s mouth while beginning to buck his hips, silently craving more contact of Zaveid’s warm hand around his now awakened member. Damn it, it was incredible how quickly he had adapted to be with Zaveid again. It was as if those years of separation hadn’t been there at all and he had come back to be that seventeen years old teenager who hadn’t ever minded to show how much he desired his boyfriend. 

“Dezel…”, the named one felt his member twitch in Zaveid’s hand when hearing the want on Zaveid’s low tone, “damn it…”

Dezel’s heart skipped a beat when Zaveid settled both of his hands on his ass to begin to spread his buttocks. Dezel took a deep breath, getting prepared to the discomfort that he was surely going to feel when Zaveid began to press inside.

However, instead of doing that Zaveid simply aligned his own member (which was almost fully hard, Dezel noticed with a wave of arousal) between Dezel’s buttocks. He settled then his hands on Dezel’s member again to resume his ministrations before beginning to grind against the younger Wind Seraph.

Dezel bit his bottom lip, tensing with a mix of arousal and frustrating anticipation when Zaveid’s hot and hard member began to slide between his buttocks over and over again, because feeling Zaveid’s shaft so close to his entrance but without actually entering him was making him more and more impatient.

Damn it. He wanted more than that.

“Don’t worry, I’ll just do this…”, Zaveid reassured, misinterpreting Dezel’s tension, “I know that you aren’t completely recovered so…”

 “In”

Dezel could clearly picture the way Zaveid’s eyes had snapped opened,

“What?”

Dezel blushed. Well, he certainly couldn’t blame Zaveid for having asked with such a confused tone because he hadn’t explained himself too well. So, even if he knew that he was going to die from embarrassment when remembering his own words later, he decided to be more direct because at that moment he just wanted to feel Zaveid inside so damn much that he would gladly regret his bluntness when everything finished.

“Put it in”

Dezel heard Zaveid gulp behind him.

“You sure?”

Dezel snorted and kissed Zaveid at the same time that he grinded his ass back, demandingly. He felt the older man’s member twitching against his ass, making evident how damn much Zaveid wanted it as well despite being giving Dezel the opportunity to reconsider.

 “It’s your fault that I’m _like_ _this_ right now”, Dezel pressed Zaveid’s hand more against his erected member to give more emphasis to his words, “so you better take responsibility”

Dezel knew that he had chosen the correct words when Zaveid exhaled a low grunt before attacking his mouth in such a breathtaking kiss than when they separated Dezel had to gasp for air. 

 “Gladly”, Zaveid practically purred in Dezel’s ear before spreading his ass once again to this time begin to sink into him.

Dezel’s grip on Zaveid’s hair tightened while moaning wantonly when feeling Zaveid’s member slowly filling him, and even if he felt a little discomfort during the penetration process the fullness that invaded him when Zaveid was settled fully inside was really worth it.

“God, _Dezel_ …”, Zaveid groaned against Dezel’s shoulder, initiating a calm pace when seeing that Dezel had immediately begun to push back against him, trying to feel him deeper, “...you feel really good inside…”

Dezel shivered when hearing those heated words before kissing Zaveid again, open-mouthed and messily because he couldn’t help to moan every time that he felt his insides burning pleasantly when Zaveid’s thick member thrust in and out him with a faster and faster pace.

“Z-Zaveid…”, Dezel exhaled one of the times that Zaveid let go his mouth to attack the side of his neck again,  making the younger Wind Seraph shiver, “please, go...”

“Sorry, too fast?”, Zaveid said immediately with certain concern, “damn, sorry, I’ll try to control myself mor…”

Dezel shut up Zaveid with another needy kiss, making sure to grab Zaveid’s bottom lip briefly before releasing it since he knew perfectly the effect that that action caused on the older Wind Seraph.

“Harder”, he breathed against Zaveid’s half-opened mouth, and he was about to smirk when feeling Zaveid shiver powerfully.

“Damn it, Dezel…”, Zaveid growled, grabbing the back of Dezel’s knee to force him to raise it a little, “…you turn me on too much…”

This time Dezel moaned loudly and arched his body when Zaveid complied by pounding into him with vigor, the new angle causing Zaveid’s member to ram against his prostrate non-stop making Dezel feel a wave of sharp heat traversing by his whole body.

“Ah… _there_ …”, Dezel exhaled in delight, “…oh yes...Zaveid _yes_ …!”, “

Dezel began to meet Zaveid’s thrusts with force while keeping exhaling Zaveid’s name like a mantra, encouraging the older man to keep that frenetic but awesome rhythm, secretly enjoying the way Zaveid’s powerful chest rubbed against his back with every desperate movements of their more and more sweated bodies. Damn, he would die before admitting it aloud but feeling Zaveid’s muscular body pressing against him with such violent passion had always turned him on to no extent.

Dezel whined when Zaveid nipped his jaw while using the hand that wasn’t sustaining his leg to begin to pump his member again with long and powerful strokes, the double stimulation together with Zaveid’s heated moans whispered just in his ear making him feel his orgasm approaching incredibly faster.

“ _Dezel_ …”, the named one felt like melting when Zaveid grabbed his earlobe with his teeth, licking it with languid movements that clearly contrasted with the rough rhythm he was using to fuck him, and that caused Dezel to feel even aroused than he thought possible, “…damn it, I’m close…”

 “Me too…”, Dezel breathed out, settling the hand that wasn’t grabbing Zaveid’s hair over his member, replacing Zaveid’s one and allowing the older Wind Seraph to use his now free hand to rub his erected nipples again, “… _ngh_ …damn, Zaveid, I’m…”

“I know”, Zaveid exhaled with a breathless tone. He pinched Dezel’s nipple while picking up even more speed, the sound of his hips connecting with Dezel’s ass and the bed creaking for their passionate movements mixing with both of their hurried groans, “…can I come inside again?”

Dezel moaned through gritted teeth when hearing Zaveid’s petition and began to stroke his member faster. Damn it, maybe at the end Zaveid wasn’t going to be wrong when joking that he liked dirty talk.

“Yeah…”, Dezel turned his head to the side to let Zaveid plunge his tongue inside his mouth in a deep kiss, allowing that hot wet muscle ravage his cavity as it pleased, “…yeah, _do it_ …”

Zaveid groaned into the kiss, and when feeling the way Zaveid’s member throbbed inside him Dezel couldn’t hold back any longer and came against his hand, quivering powerfully.

The twitching of his inner walls when coming pushed Zaveid’s to his limit as well. With a low growl he reached his climax, biting the juncture between Dezel’s neck and shoulder while emptying inside a worn out Dezel who was still struggling to recover his breath.

After several seconds of breathing heavily in an attempt to recover their normal heartbeat, Zaveid nudged with his nose the back of Dezel’s neck, causing the younger Wind Seraph to turn his face towards Zaveid lazily in order to accept Zaveid’s languid kiss.

“It seems that at the end you didn’t need the whole night to recover, Dezel-chan”

Dezel let out a tired laugh, his breathing still labored and his mind a little fuzzy in a post-orgasmic daze.

“I’ll tell you tomorrow when I can’t get up from the bed”, Dezel replied back, causing Zaveid to laugh while grabbing some tissues from the nightstand to clean themselves.

“Well, this time it hasn’t been my fault”, Dezel could hear Zaveid’s satisfied smirk on his tone, “after all it hasn’t been me the one who has decided to go all the way”

Dezel snorted.

“Please, do you really want me to believe that you haven’t begun to tease me on purpose?”

“That’s nothing new, Dezel-chan, I’m _always_ teasing you. Or could it be…”, Dezel’s breath hitched when Zaveid’s chest connected with his back again, “…that it still arouses you to feel my body like _this_?”

Dezel blushed furiously when Zaveid grinded just once to make his built pectorals rub against his sweated back. Damn intuitive bastard.

“T-That’s not it, it’s just…”

“Mmm, so for that reason you didn’t allow me to cuddle you from behind before getting together…”

“ _ZAVEID_ …!”

Dezel tried to hit his laughing boyfriend but his movements were still a little clumsy, so Zaveid was able to avoid his lame attempt of punching and attack his mouth again in a deep kiss that made Dezel let out an involuntary moan.

“I love you”

Dezel gulped. Damn it, he hadn’t changed one bit. His heart kept getting crazy whenever he heard Zaveid said that with such sincerity.

“What you loved is to tease me”, Dezel replied, and for the way he felt Zaveid smiling against his lips he knew that Zaveid remembered that sentence. It was the one he always used whenever Zaveid declared his love for him after teasing him.

“Yeah, that as well”, Zaveid said happily, kissing Dezel briefly again, “and now get prepared, Dezel-chan. We are going for the third round”

“Hah?!”, Dezel exclamation turned into a soft gasp when Zaveid began to nibble at his neck again,  “o-oi, are you planning to kill me from exhaustion?”

“Come on, Dezel-chan, three rounds in a night isn’t that much. We’ve managed to reach the sixth round in the past”

“That was just _one_ night, and at that moment we were younger and horny as hell after having spent a month unable to do anything besides training”

“Mmm… Okay, then if for waiting ONE month we had SIX rounds of wild sex in one night, for being waiting five years that are SIXTY months that means…”

“It doesn’t work that way, idiot”, Dezel exclaimed, but he spoke between laughs because of the ridiculousness of Zaveid’s logic so his apparent exasperation lost part of its effect.

“Yeah, maybe you’re right. Despite my stamina three hundred and sixty rounds are too much to handle”, Zaveid admitted with such a fake serious tone that Dezel laughed again.

“Yeah, they are, so I’m afraid that we’ll have to do those three hundred and sixty rounds during more than one night”

Zaveid chuckled when hearing Dezel’s ironic tone.

“Very well, Dezel-chan, but you can be sure that I’m going to keep the count so…”, Zaveid crawled over Dezel and approached his face to him so much that the younger Wind Seraph could feel Zaveid’s lips brushing against his when speaking, “…you still owe me three hundred and fifty eight rounds”

Dezel snorted but there was a smile on his face when talking.

“I won’t forget but right now we should really sleep. I promise you that tomorrow morning we’ll reduce that number again. After all…”, Dezel felt brave enough to borrow some of Zaveid’s shameless attitude and enclosed his arms around the older man’s neck while speaking with a tone that he considered acceptably sensual, “…we’ll have the _whole day_ for ourselves”

For the way Zaveid inhaled sharply Dezel deduced that his attempt of being seductive had worked.

“Okay, to hell with waiting, I want my third round now”, Dezel let out an undignified gasp when Zaveid enclosed his arms around him tightly and sucked at his now oversensitive neck again, “And my fourth. And my fifth…”

“ _Zaveid_!”

Again, since Dezel was laughing nonstop while Zaveid tried to ‘force him’ to have his third, fourth and fifth round all together, his apparent exasperated shout sounded way more happy than it should.

In fact just before finally falling asleep in Zaveid’s arms Dezel couldn’t help to think once again how damn much he had missed Zaveid. And, although again he wasn’t going to admit it, how damn much he was looking for the next day.

* * *

Dezel slowly woke up some hours later when someone began to knock at the door. He first ignored the noises, deducing that it was someone of the inn that planned to clean the room and that he would stop knocking when seeing that there was no response.

However, he was surprised when another two louder knocks sounded before hearing a familiar voice coming from the outside. Obviously, Zaveid hadn’t woken up yet and the only thing that he did was to grunt in his sleep.

“Dezel? Zaveid? Are you guys decent?”

It didn’t take Dezel too much to answer. After all even if he couldn’t check the exact look that he presented, he remembered Zaveid’s mouth leaving marks in several parts of his body so he preferred not to give Rose more reasons to laugh at him.  After all he was pretty sure that she was going to do it anyway when hearing the answer.

“No, we aren’t”

But Rose didn’t laugh. In fact, when answering her tone was uncharacteristically serious.

“Okay, then can you get dressed and join us at the dining room the soonest you can? Everyone is there already”

Dezel frowned, not paying attention to the way the whole bed shook when Zaveid changed position to keep sleeping with his powerful back turned to Dezel.

“Is something wrong, Rose?”

Well, at least the fact that the girl answered immediately made Dezel’s momentary alert go away.

“Don’t worry, nothing is wrong with any of us, it’s just that there is something that the Windriders has to discuss. Regarding our schedule”

“Okay, we’ll be there in five minutes”, Dezel said, biting back a groan of discomfort when incorporating and his back protested.

“Five minutes? Wow, you’re going to have to be really fast if you want to intimate before joining us…”

“ _Rose_!”

Dezel heard Rose chuckle before hearing her fast steps, indicating him that the girl had left the door. Well, if she was able to make jokes the thing that they had to discuss couldn’t be _so_ bad…

No, thinking about it better the fact that Rose made jokes wasn’t any indications. After all, she was very similar to Zaveid in that aspect and sometimes she used her sense of humor to hide important matters as well, so they better go quickly to see what the hell had happened.

“Oi, Zaveid, get up”, Dezel said, shaking Zaveid’s back unceremoniously because he knew from experience how hard it was to wake his boyfriend up.

Zaveid grunted lazily, ignoring completely the way Dezel was practically shaking his whole body by them in a useless attempt to make him react.

“Damn sleepyhead”, Dezel said with an exasperated tone, and after being about to push Zaveid out of the bed (it wasn’t the first time that he used that technique to wake him up) he decided to use another technique that always proved to be effective, and whose first step consisted on push Zaveid’s back against the mattress again.

“Dezel?”, Zaveid  muttered, beginning to wake up slowly when feeling Dezl crawl over him, “what are you…?”

Without letting Zaveid complete the sleepy sentence Dezel kissed Zaveid senseless, causing the older man’s eyes to go wide, completely awakened.

“You awake? Good”, Dezel said while Zaveid was still trying to regain some air, “because we have to join the rest in five minutes so…”

Dezel exhaled a cry when Zaveid made them roll to make his back finish against the mattress again. Dezel was about to protest but at that moment Zaveid decided to kiss him again with intensity while pining both of his hands on either side of his head. Okay, this was the inconvenient of waking Zaveid like that: most part of the times they ended having another round.

“Zaveid…”, Dezel managed to exhale when Zaveid stopped the mind-blowing kiss that had caused Dezel’s lower half twitch involuntarily, “Zaveid, wait…”

“Sorry, Dezel…”, the younger Wind Seraph bit his bottom lip not to gasp when Zaveid reached down to circle his tongue over one of his nipples, “it’s your fault for having waken me up so temptingly…”

“Zaveid…”, Dezel arched his body automatically while moaning when Zaveid roughly bit his sensitive bud. Damn it, he had to stop Zaveid now if he didn’t want to end having sex again. He knew how weak he was when Zaveid began to use his mouth like that, “Zaveid, seriously, stop. We have to join the rest now”

When hearing Dezel’s tone getting serious Zaveid immediately stopped his actions, thing that Dezel thanked but at the same time regretted, because damn if his body wasn’t desiring Zaveid’s awesome tongue traveling even lower.

“Yeah, I’ve heard you, but what’s the rush?”

Dezel shrugged while incorporating.

“I don’t know yet but it seems that’s something related to our schedule that we have to discuss urgently”

Zaveid hummed to himself while Dezel stood up from the bed with certain difficulty to begin to get dressed. Damn it, he should have deduced that after five years of completely lack of sex it would have been cleverer to take things with more calm. But well, the harm was done. And certainly it was a harm that Dezel wouldn’t mind to pay too much.

“Okay, let’s see what’s all that about”, Zaveid said while standing up from the bed as well, “…but before that…”

Dezel gasped in surprise when suddenly Zaveid enclosed his arms around his waist and kissed him long and sensual, causing heat to settle in his stomach whenever that Zaveid kissed him _like that_.

“Good morning, Dezel-chan. I hope that you don’t hit me like the last time”

Dezel chuckled, understanding that Zaveid was referring to that morning in which Zaveid, still half-asleep, had kissed him when they weren’t together yet.

“You deserved it that time”, he simply said, kissing Zaveid briefly before pushing softly the man away, “and now let’s go with the rest before Rose came back to drag us”

Zaveid laughed while finally beginning to put his pants on.

“Yeah, I can perfectly imagine her doing that”

* * *

 

A couple of minutes later both Wind Seraph entered the dining room where the rest was waiting, and Dezel immediately knew that something not precisely good had happened when he and Zaveid approached the group and absolutely no one made any joking comment about Zaveid and him. Damn it, this was one of those moments in which he missed his lost eyesight, because it would be easier to measure the gravity of the situation while seeing the rest’s expression.  

“Okay, shoot, what’s happened?”

There was a brief silence in which everyone seemed to agree on who was going to speak. At the end it was Edna.

“Sergei has just sent us a note saying that the date of the final competition has just been changed. Instead of in two months, it is in just one”

Dezel felt his heart stop momentarily while Zaveid tensed next to him.

 “What?”, he said, expecting to have heard wrong.

“Sergei-san hasn’t given us many details”, Lailah explained, trying to use a calm tone despite her frustration was rather obvious, “but according to him it’s really probable that after last night show the Cardinal got in touch with the ones in charge of the competition and… _convinced_ them to change the date”

“Damn it”, Zaveid cursed through gritted teeth, “it seems that that bastard knows that we are close and wants us out of the way even before the competition”

“Yeah”, Rose said, her usually cheery tone sounding down now, “I mean, we all knew that the Cardinal was allied with Hedalf. But I didn’t know that she would be able to do something like this”

Dezel didn’t say anything. He was still assimilating the news.

One month.

They had one month to travel to Ladylake, who was at the opposite side of where they were at that moment and that required practically a month of traveling, _and_ to be able to improve their tightrope show during that time to have any opportunity to beat Hedalf.

Damn it, Dezel thought with anger. Damn it, just when everything seemed to be going perfectly something came up that tried to ruin it. It was not fair.

“It’s impossible”, Mikleo muttered with a disheartened tone, “it’s impossible, there is no way that in a month I am good enough with my show to have any possibility to beat the Calamity Circus”

“I can’t believe that I agree with Mikleo on being pessimistic”, Sorey said with a sad smile, “but I think as well that my show is really poor to be able to compete”

“And don’t forget the animals”, Edna said, her usual imperturbable tone colored with a hint of defeat, “besides training, we have to take more animal with us. We had planned to capture them during the first month to be able to train them in the second one but now…”

Edna ended the sentence with a sigh, and after a brief pause it was Lailah’s turn to speak.

“I really don’t want to suggest this but…”, Lailah gulped, “…but maybe we should consider not to participate in the competition”

When hearing Lailah’s proposal Dezel expected an immediate rejection coming from Zaveid, but to his stupor it didn’t come. The older man just let out a deep sigh, and Dezel felt his heart sinking when hearing Zaveid speak with a resignation that didn’t suit him at all.

“Maybe you are right, Lailah-chan.  I don’t like this decision one bit but maybe it’s the best. After all, nothing is forcing us to participate right now, so we could just wait to have another chance”

“Yes, that’s it”, Rose’s tone sounded forcedly animated, “I mean, I’m sure that there will be more competitions to show how awesome we are”

“Yes, we can focus for now in getting better”, Mikleo commented in the same fake tone than Rose.

“And like that we’ll be surely prepared for the next time”, Sorey added.

“Well, we’ve just waited five years to give Hedalf and Symonne what they deserve”, Edna concluded, “I suppose that to wait a little more it’s not that bad”

A heavy silence fell. And then, before Dezel could even think about what he was doing, a single word escaped from his lips.

“No”

Everyone turned to look at him with surprise.

“What?”, Lailah asked, confused.

Dezel gulped. He didn’t even know why he had said that. After all, all the things that the rest had mentioned were completely right. The time until the competition was too short so it was really unlikely that they managed to improve their performances to give an awesome show. And it was true as well that they weren’t forced to participate in the competition. They had imposed themselves that goal but they could simply wait for a more suitable chance, for a more suitable moment. For a moment which was less impossible.

But, even if all that was true, Dezel didn’t want that. During the last five years, he had got too used to think that everything was impossible. Like Lailah, Rose and him being able to keep the circus afloat; like being able to recruit more members; like being able to do the tightrope show; like being able to see Zaveid again; like being able to have a minimum chance against Hedalf and his Calamity Circus.

During the last years, he had got used not to have hope, not to expect anything to avoid getting hurt. But he had got tired of it. He didn’t want to think like that anymore, and definitely he didn’t want to give up. And that change of thinking had been possible thanks to the rest. Thanks to Rose and Lailah who had been there with him keeping the circus alive even when things couldn’t go worse. Thanks to Mikleo and Sorey who had joined the Windriders despite the circus had lost all its previous glory. Thanks to Edna who had decided to come back with them and had studied non-stop in order to cure the animals. Thanks to Zaveid who had managed to save him once again by making him overcome his own fears, by believing in him when he himself didn’t do it anymore.

Thanks to everyone, he had found hope again. Hope to become a proper circus once again, the circus that Lafarga had created and that had always been their home, so there was no way that he was going to give up without at least trying. Besides, there was nothing impossible. Zaveid had taught him that just the previous day, when making him do the tightrope show, so now it was his turn to push everyone forward. The same way every of them had done with him during all his life.

“We aren’t going to wait”, Dezel got surprised of how firm and convinced his own voice sounded, “we’ve worked really hard to enter this competition so we aren’t going to retire before even participating”

“But we have no time!”, Rose exclaimed, “the journey itself is going to last almost a month so we won’t have time to train!”

“No, we’ll have if we travel at night by taking turns, like we used to do with Lafarga when we weren’t famous enough”

Everyone interchanged surprised glances. Everyone but Zaveid, who was looking at Dezel with his eyes opened wide in astonishment and a smile about to appear on his lips.

“But even if we can gain time by doing that we still have to hunt _and_ to train the animals”, Rose protested again, although her tone sounded less defeated than the last time she had spoken.

“We just have to make sure to hunt them the first days so we have time to train them”

“But what about my show?”, Mikleo said with an hesitant tone, “I still have a lot to do to be able to train aquatic animals completely, and my show with Edna isn’t perfect yet…”

“No, it isn’t, but you have managed to train acceptably a couple of wild Lakehorses in just a day, so I think that it’s pretty safe to assume that you’ll be able to master it. We’ll just have to make sure to prepare one of the caravans so you can train the animals while traveling. I think that we have enough money to buy another one. And about you and Edna training, since you don’t need as much space as the rest of us you can also train while traveling”

Everyone gulped, still with hesitation but the previous dark mood had reduced considerably. In fact, it was a pity that Dezel couldn’t see the way Zaveid was looking at him while talking because he would have blushed for sure.

“And what about the tightrope show?”, Lailah asked carefully, “because the installation that you need to train is rather difficult to assemble so…”

“It won’t be needed to install anything. We just need to put a rope between two of our caravans and I can train like that”

“What?! You plan to train while we are traveling?!”, Rose exclaimed in such a high pitched voice that Sorey couldn’t help to let out a chuckle, and hearing that after such a serious conversation was like a boost of spirit to everyone.

“It’s not such a bad idea”, Edna intervened then, “besides, like that he would be able to train his balance even more”

“B-But Dezel-san, what will happen if you fall while training and you end hurt?!”

“That won’t happen. After all”, Dezel settled a hand over Zaveid’s shoulder, “I’m sure that Zaveid ‘of the Promise’ is awesome enough not to fall so he would be always be there to catch me, right?”

Zaveid let out a surprised laugh.

“Of course I will”, he said, and Dezel felt relief invading him when Zaveid spoke with his usual nonchalant tone. Yeah, that was the way he had to sound.

“Then…”, Rose said after a short pause, “… are we going to do this?”

Edna surprised everyone by clicking her tongue loudlyb

“Tsk, of course we are. If Dezel the ‘Ultimate Pessimistic’ thinks that we are able to do it then there is no way that I’m going to say no”

“Oi, ‘Queen of the Tsundere’, you are no one to talk!”

Dezel’s offended reply caused everyone to begin to laugh, and that was the last blow to erase definitely the oppressive mood that had settled.

“Hey, maybe you should think about changing your names. They are really cool”, Rose suggested then, her usual teasing tone was back at full force.

“Ha ha ha”, Dezel answered simply, but there was a hint of a smile on his face when hearing Rose’s animated chuckle.

“Well, if we are going to participate I’ll make sure to master the training of the animals in just one week”, Mikleo stated, and it was the first time that the boy spoke with no doubt at all.

“And I’m going to train so much as well that Rose ‘the Rose’ won’t be able to beat me with her daggers so easily”, Sorey said, throwing a ‘threatening glance’ towards Rose that caused the girl to smile at him with superiority.

“Sorry, Lailah-chan”, Zaveid said then, his extremely satisfied tone contrasting with his apology, “but it seems that your proposal hasn’t been accepted at the end”

Lailah chuckled.

“Yes, what a pity”, she said with such happiness that everyone chuckled again.

“It’s decided then!”, Rose exclaimed raising her glass, “our next stop is Ladylake to kick Hedalf’s ass once and for all!”

Everyone shouted a loud ‘ _Yeah_!!’ while raising their glasses as well, and when everyone began to laugh after seeing Mikleo begin to cough because of the strength of the liquor that Rose had just served him, Dezel felt Zaveid leaning towards him to whisper just in his ear.

“You know? You have been hot as hell when speaking with such determination to convince us”

Dezel snorted despite his cheeks had reddened a little when realizing that Zaveid wasn’t joking.

“Thanks, but the next time that you suggest to abandon before even trying I’ll kick your ass for acting so out of character, idiot”

Zaveid chuckled a little embarrassingly.

“Sorry for that. But since this time I wasn’t sure that we were able to make it I didn’t want to give you all hopes to destroy it later”

Dezel snorted.

“Well, thanks to certain someone that always insisted on not to give up I don’t care about that as much as I did before, so I’m afraid that this month of training is going to be even crazier than the ones we used to have when beginning in the circus”

Zaveid let out an exaggerated sigh.

“Damn, and just when you began to be interested in sex again… _ouch_!”

“Idiot, don’t speak so loud!”

“Oh, that’s right, at the end we haven’t had time to ask: how has your second first night been?!”

“Tsk, I bet that you haven’t allowed anyone in the inn to sleep”

“Well, now that Edna-san mentions it it’s true that I’ve seen several people with bags under their eyes”

“Hey, just out of curiosity, the beds of this inn creak too much? Because the bed in our caravan is really noisy so…”

“ _S-SOREY_!”

Dezel let out a patient sigh while the rest laughed again after a completely red Mikleo tried to hit a rather laughing Sorey.

However, when feeling Zaveid place an arm affectionately around his shoulders with the clear intention of kissing his cheek he made sure to turn his face to Zaveid’s side to divert the trajectory of the kiss and capture the older Wind Seraph’s mouth in a rather intense kiss.

Because against his will, Dezel was discovering that the more time it passed, the less he could pretend to be annoyed when being around that bunch of crazy people. Although of course he would keep giving his best to try it. Just for the sake of his character.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you have enjoyed the chapter :) I estimate that the next update will be in a month and half approximately, since I’m going to be updating my ongoing fics alternatively.
> 
> As always, comments will be greatly appreciated ^^


	13. Encounters with the past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update. As I said I’ve been working on two fics at the same time and for that reason I haven’t been able to update sooner ^^U

“Are you sure that you don’t want to protest against the change of date of the competition? I’m sure that if you present charges you can change the date back”

“Thank you for your concern, Sergei-san, but it won’t be necessary”, Lailah assured the outraged man with a smile.

After hearing the news they had rapidly packed everything and now were about to leave towards Ladylake. They also contacted Sergei to communicate him that they were leaving the town and the man surprised them by showing up in the entrance of the Pendrago.

“Still, it is not fair for you”, Sergei insisted, “the Calamity Circus is now assented really near Ladylake so they are not affected at all by the change, but you…”

“Don’t worry, man. We’ll manage somehow”, Zaveid patted Sergei’s back with his usual finesse, causing the man to huff, “besides, changing the date back would be to admit that they had been able to bother us”

“And we don’t want than even if it’s true”, Dezel concluded.

Sergei exhaled a sigh, and although he didn’t look very convinced he ended nodding.

“Alright, I won’t insist anymore. However, when you’re traveling make sure to stop in these villages and show this at the inn”, Sergei gave Lailah a note with the name of some villages written on it and some kind of amulet, “the people there would give you the supplies you need and a change of horses. Since you plan to travel at night as well that will be really necessary”

“Wow, you’re way too kind with us!”, Rose exclaimed with a happy tone.

“Yeah, so kind that it’s almost suspicious”

Sergei simply chuckled when hearing Edna’s words.

“I just can’t stand people who play dirty, and definitely the Cardinal can be included in that kind of people. So be at ease, Edna-san. I don’t have any ulterior motive to want to help you”

Edna hummed to herself and didn’t say anything, indicating like that in her particular way that she had been convinced.

“Thanks for everything, Sergei”, Sorey offered his hand to Sergei and he immediately shook it.

“We’ll pay back the favor somehow”, Mikleo added.

“Win the competition and we’ll be even”, Sergei smiled before waving them goodbye, “so have a safe journey and good luck with the competition, Windriders”

The Windriders thanked Sergei once again for his kindness and help before finally starting the journey.

“Oookay, ladies and gentlemen, this is going to be a tough trip so brace yourselves”, Rose joked while taking the reins of the horses that were leading the rest of the caravans, causing Lailah to chuckle.

“I don’t think that it is tougher that the trips that we had to do when we had barely money and…w-wait a moment, Dezel-san, Zaveid-san, are you planning to install the rope _already_?!”

“Of course, Lailah-chan! We can’t waste any single second so we better begin to train right now”

“And we should establish the shifts that we are going to take during the travel, so for now you can go with Rose to help her lead the caravans”

“Oh, don’t worry, Dezel! I don’t need anyone’s help: I have everything under contr… _wow_!”

Rose managed to avoid in time a rather giant rock that was in the middle of the road, making all the caravans bounce dangerously.

“Great idea, Dezel-san, I’m going to join Rose-san _right now_ ”

“Come on, it has just been a little jump…”

“Sorey, Meebo: you come with me to help me restructuring of the caravans”, Edna said then, “we have to make room for the animals that we are going to hunt”

“Yes, ma’am!”, Sorey said following the blonde girl while Mikleo was still trying to recover his normal breath after Rose’s kamikaze way of driving.

“I think that we are going to relive the first years of the Windriders when we _and_ the animals traveled crowded in just a caravan””, Zaveid commented with a smile while helping Dezel to tie up the rope between two caravans.

Dezel chuckled.

“Yeah, these three weeks are going to be a little chaotic”, Dezel admitted.

Zaveid let out a resigned sigh before lowering his voice so that just Dezel heard him.

“And I’m afraid that that means that we aren’t going to have much time to be alone”

Dezel snorted, but deep inside he regretted it too, and he was embarrassed to admit that despite the two rounds of mind-blowing sex that he had shared with Zaveid the previous night, he still had been left hungry for more.

“Well, if our estimations are correct we’ll arrive at Ladylake four days before the tournament, so I suppose that we could use a couple of those nights to…”

Dezel didn’t complete the sentence on purpose and smirked playfully instead, since he had noticed that Zaveid liked when he did that. The way his breath hitched clearly proved it.

“You better not regret that tempting suggestion later, Dezel-chan”, it was Dezel’s turn to shiver when Zaveid nipped his ear briefly, “because I plan to make you fulfill it”

Zaveid kissed Dezel languidly slow, knowing that that kind of kisses were one of Dezel’s weaknesses. However, Dezel couldn’t kiss back the older Wind Seraph properly because at that moment Rose’s voice made them come back to the reality.

“Seriously, how much time is taking you to tie that rope?”

Zaveid and Dezel stopped kissing startled and resumed their initial task after clearing their respective throats. Dezel sighed to himself. Definitely, those three weeks were going to be hard to handle.

* * *

**_Three weeks later (9 days before the competition)_ **

Dezel woke up slightly confused when he suddenly stopped feeling the rolling of the caravan inside which he was sleeping. That was weird. Theoretically they weren’t going to make more stops until that night, so he didn’t understand why they had stopped.

He incorporated into a sitting position from the improvised bed that they had arranged in the caravan where they kept the materials, since the other two caravans that usually worked as their bedrooms were full with several animals that they have hunted during the first week. He made sure to stand up as noiselessly as he could in order not to wake Sorey up, who was still sleeping.

Dezel suppressed an amused smile, knowing that when he came back to share the bed just with Zaveid it was going to be weird at first, because during the last two weeks he had got used to sleep crowed with the rest of the Windriders, since in order to shorten the trip and be able to arrive at Ladylake in time they had to take turns to lead the caravans.

That meant that while two Windriders were in charge of leading the caravans, other three were training or checking the animals and the two remaining were sleeping, with the exception of Dezel who skipped the leading part and focused mainly in training. After all, no matter how sharp his other senses were, a blind driver wasn’t very useful. Consequently, at that moment Rose and Zaveid were in charge of leading, Edna, Lailah and Mikleo were training, and it was resting time for Sorey and him.

Finally, even if they stopped in all the villages that Sergei had recommended in order to make the change of horses, they couldn’t waste any time so they usually stopped at the inn to have a quick meal and re-stock supplies before coming back to the tiring journey. Damn, he couldn’t wait to have a normal schedule again.

“Why have we stopped?”, Dezel asked with curiosity after stepping out the caravan and joining Zaveid and Rose in the front, “is something wrong?”

“No, nothing. It’s just…”

Zaveid stopped talking, as if he was not sure of continuing speaking, and that just made Dezel want to know even more what was happening.

“It’s just…?”, he repeated, encouraging Zaveid to complete his sentence, but it was Rose the one who finished it.

“We have just arrived at the cliff where you and Zaveid met for the first time”

Dezel’s heart skipped a beat.

If what Rose had said was true, that meant that his home village was close. The village where his mother probably still lived.

At that moment the rest of the Windriders, who were training inside other of the caravans, and Sorey, who had woken up after hearing Dezel’s question, went outside as well.

“Hey, what happens? It’s already time to change drivers?”, Sorey asked.

“Wait a moment”, Lailah looked around, “this place…”

Instead of completing the sentence Lailah looked at Dezel with concerned eyes.

“What’s with this place?”, Mikleo inquired when a brief silence followed.

Dezel cleared his throat to make sure that his voice wasn’t going to sound weird before answering.

“This cliff is where Zaveid saved my life for the first time, after I ran out from my village when I was little”

After some seconds of silence, it was Edna the first one to ask what everyone was thinking.

“So what do you want to do? Would you like to visit it?”

Dezel gulped and crossed his arms, thinking carefully.

It was true that a part of him didn’t want to go there at all. His past was something that he had decided to leave behind without regrets, and probably the cleverest thing to do would be to keep things that way.

However, even if he tried to deny it, he couldn’t help to wonder what had happened with his mother, even if the woman couldn’t have done it worse when raising him, so now that he had the opportunity to face his mother again he wanted to take it. Even if he ended hurt, he knew that he would regret not having done anything.

“Yes, if it’s not much of a bother I would like to stop for a quick visit”

Another silence fell, although shorter than the previous one because almost immediately it was Zaveid the one who broke it.

“Okay, but I’m going too”

Dezel had to suppress a smile when noticing that even if Zaveid always used to ask for his opinion, this time his serious tone gave no option to protest.

“As long as you promise me that you’re not going to kill my stepfather in case he is there too”

Everyone chuckled when Zaveid let out a resigned sigh before nodding, although with reluctance.

“Take all the time you need”, Lailah said with her usual gentleness.

“We’ll be waiting here”, Rose added, patting Dezel’s arm as a support.

“And don’t hesitate to warn me if you need me to hit someone with my umbrella”

Dezel forced himself to smile at everyone before beginning the trip towards his village, although he could feel his chest tight because of the nervousness.

Well, at least he would have time to calm down during the trip since he remembered to have run for hours when those wolves began to go after him.

For that reason, when Zaveid announced that they had arrived barely twenty minutes later, Dezel didn’t believe it at first.

“Are you sure that we aren’t in a wrong village?”

Zaveid shook his head.

“There isn’t any other village around here”

Dezel nodded to himself before exhaling a self-mocking laugh.  He should have deduced that for a ten-years-old beaten up and scared kid, twenty minutes of being chased by wolves in the forest at night would feel like hours.

“So do you remember what you house was?”

Dezel nodded again before beginning to walk. He could be blind now but there was no way that he had forgotten the path that he had followed to escape from that damn place.

They reached his house in less than five minutes. Dezel stood in front of the main door and gulped in an attempt to wet his now dry throat.

There he was again, in front of his ‘home’ and about to meet his mother after twelve years. And damn, he really was an idiot for coming back voluntarily to the place that had made him suffer so much…

“Hey”, Dezel jumped when Zaveid suddenly settled a hand on his shoulder, “I’m right here, next to you. So if at any time you want to come back with the rest, you just have to say it”

Dezel settled his own hand over Zaveid’s and pressed it while exhaling a deep breath, calming him down. He waited a couple of seconds until feeling his heartbeat normalize more or less and then he knocked at the door twice, firmly, ready to face whatever it was waiting for him inside.

At first Dezel thought that there was no one at home, since about ten seconds passed and no one went to open the door. Dezel raised his arm to knock again but just at that moment the door opened, and Dezel couldn’t help to make a grimace when the disagreeable familiar aroma of his stepfather cologne hit his nose.

“ _You_!”, Dezel gritted his teeth when hearing that voice that he had hated since the first moment he had listened to it, “how do you have the nerve to come here after all this time?! How do you…?”

The man shut up immediately, letting out a strangled gasp, and Dezel deduced that the fact that Zaveid had let himself be seen through the door had something to do with him.

“Hey, long time no see”

The threat was so evident on Zaveid’s voice that Dezel heard his stepfather give a couple of steps backwards. Both Wind Seraph took that as an invitation and entered the house again.

When they were inside Dezel wrinkled his nose because of the mildew smell that impregnated the room. He could also feel his feet almost getting stuck on the ground because of the dirtiness, and when he placed a hand on the kitchen table that kept being in the middle of the room he wasn’t surprised when his fingers ended covered in dust.

That was weird. It was true that his mother had never especially cared about the cleaning (mainly because Dezel had always been the one in doing it) but the state of his house… It was as if it had been abandoned.

“Okay, listen well, asshole”, Dezel’s stepfather let out another undignified squeak when Zaveid approached him slowly with his arms crossed, “we are here to see Dezel’s mum so could you leave out of here while we talk? We prefer not to have trash like you around here”

Dezel was surprised when instead of running away the man snorted.

“I’m afraid that you have arrived a couple of months late. She is dead”

Dezel froze when hearing his stepfather’s words.

Among all the sceneries that he had visualized in his head, it hadn’t occurred to him that his mother could have died.

“What?”

His stepfather changed his weight from one foot to the other one.

“You’ve already heard me. She is gone. You know very well that she always was a weak person and this spring was colder than usual. She caught pneumonia and couldn’t handle it, that’s all”

“ _That’s all_?”

Zaveid’s low tone should have warned Dezel’s stepfather that he should be careful with his next words, but the man wasn’t that clever and just snorted again.

“Yes, that’s all. I had nothing to do with it. She could never take care of herself and I couldn’t be doing it all day either. I had to work for the _both_ of us, so it is not my fault that she ended…”

Zaveid grabbed Dezel’s stepfather by the front of his jacket and pushed his back rudely against one of the wall of the room, causing the man to begin to tremble like a leaf when seeing the way Zaveid’s eyes were shining dangerously.

“I can’t stand liars, you know? So don’t you dare to avoid your own responsibilities. I don’t like Dezel’s mother one bit. She wasn’t brave enough to living on for her son and what is worse: she chose _you_ as Dezel’s new father. But still…”, Zaveid’s voice lowered an octave, making the man gulp, “…you had a duty when deciding to marry that woman. The duty of taking care of her. Dezel was able to do it for _seven years_ when he was just a kid, even when she didn’t deserve it. And _you_ claim not being able to do the same? Please, just be man enough to say the truth and admit that you never cared about your wife, the same way that you never gave a shit about Dezel”

Zaveid raised a hand with the clear intention of hitting him but Dezel approached the older Wind Seraph and grabbed his arm, stopping him.

“Enough, Zaveid. That’s enough”

Zaveid didn’t obey immediately and for a moment Dezel thought that he had to insist, but eventually the older man exhaled a curse and released his stepfather, who gulped loudly in fear.

“Look, I want to be out of here as much as you want me out of here”, Dezel said with a firm calm that surprised even him, “I just wanted to come here to see how my mother was doing. However, now that she isn’t here anymore, can you at least tell me where she has been buried?”, Dezel hesitated before making the next question, “And if she has left anything for me behind?”

There was a short pause and then his stepfather spoke.

“She is buried in the graveyard, just next to the church as she always wanted. And about she leaving anything behind, there was an envelope on her nightstand with your name on it”

Dezel nodded.

“Thanks. We’ll take it and leave”

The man exhaled a short empty laugh.

“You can be here all the time you want. I was about to leave this stinky house myself”

“Then why the hell are you still here? Get out already”

This time, the man did run when Zaveid practically snarled those words, and despite the situation Dezel couldn’t help to chuckle.

“You surely lose your cool when he is around”

Zaveid clicked his tongue.

“And you blame me for that? If it wasn’t because I wouldn’t be able to see you in case of being jailed I would definitely kill him”

Dezel smiled and kissed Zaveid softly, effectively making the older man’s tension to subside a little.

“How are you feeling?”

Dezel shrugged.

“I know that I’m probably going to sound coldhearted but I can’t bring myself to be sorry for her death”

Zaveid sighed and hugged him.

“You are not coldhearted at all, Dezel. It’s perfectly logical. After how much you suffered because of her, you can’t possibly force yourself to feel pain for her loss”

Dezel gulped and hugged Zaveid’s back with force, feeling more at ease when his doubts about being a monster unable to love the person who brought him to the world disappeared.

After that, they entered Dezel’s mother’s room and Zaveid confirmed that, as Dezel’s stepfather had said, there was an envelope on the nightstand.

Dezel took the envelope with certain hesitation. He spent half-a-minute passing it from one hand to another absentmindedly, after finally making his mind and giving it to Zaveid.

“Please, can you open it and tell me what is inside?”

After a brief moment of hesitation Zaveid nodded.

“Sure”

Zaveid grabbed the envelope but Dezel kept grabbing it without releasing it.

“And don’t lie to me”, Dezel warned, his tone deathly serious, “no matter what my mother wanted to tell me in her last moments I want to know it. So don’t lie”

Zaveid remained silent for some seconds until finally nodding again.

“I promise you that I won’t lie”

After hearing Zaveid’s words Dezel finally let go the envelope, allowing Zaveid to open it, and he insulted himself internally when feeling nervousness assaulting him again.

“So? What’s in there?”, Dezel asked with impatience when several seconds had passed and Zaveid hadn’t said anything, and for the way Zaveid’s voice sounded when speaking again, studiedly calm, Dezel knew that whatever his mother had left wasn’t too good.

“There are some photos of you when you weren’t more than a baby. There are also a photo of you and your parents, and then a couple of photos of you, your mother and your stepfather”

Dezel felt his heart skip a beat. He had completely forgotten those photos until now. But if his mother was keeping them could that mean that, at the end, she had cared about him at least a little?

“That’s all?”, Dezel felt Zaveid tensing, “Zaveid?”

After another brief silence Zaveid sighed and spoke, his voice still calm but now stained with a quiet anger.

“In the photos where you appear, your face has been removed. As if someone had used a knife to cut it. And in the photography where you are just a baby a sentence is written: _having you has been my worst mistake”_

Dezel had seriously thought to be well prepared to face whatever his mother had left for him.

He had really thought that after all the time that had passed, after how little he had thought about his mother during all those twelve years, he was seriously not going to care about what that woman had to say, about what was waiting for him in that envelope. Or at least, that in the doubtful case that he cared about it, that definitely it wasn’t going to hurt. At least not too much.

But he had been mistaken.

He hadn’t been as prepared as he thought he was. He hadn’t been able to self-convince himself as well as he thought. Because after hearing Zaveid’s words the pain that assaulted him was way more intense and sharper than he had been able to imagine, to the point that he felt his chest clenching so tight that even breathing was painful.

“Dezel?”

Zaveid said his name with such a concerned tone that Dezel’s first impulse was to automatically say that he was fine, but he knew that it would be stupid to do that when it was such an evident lie. However, he still tried to speak with an indifferent tone, even if he knew as well that Zaveid was not going to be fooled by it because the trembling of his voice was embarrassingly evident.

“I was naïve for thinking that maybe my mother would eventually realize her mistakes. That maybe she would regret her actions”, Dezel cleared his throat when feeling that his voice was going to fail him and let out an empty laugh, “well, I suppose that it’s my fault for having my hair grey. I’m sure that if I had had a more normal color my biological father wouldn’t have left us and maybe my mother wouldn’t have hated me that muc…”

And then Zaveid hugged him, tightly, enclosing his strong arms around him with firmness but also tenderness, with possessiveness, with unconditional love. And after detecting all those feelings in that simple gesture, all Dezel’s attempts to play tough, to be sarcastic, to pretend that he hadn’t been deeply hurt by the woman he thought couldn’t cause him pain anymore, were destroyed.

So he simply stopped pretending that everything was fine and returned the embrace, enclosing his arms around Zaveid’s back with force, burying his head in the crook of his neck to let out the tears that had been threatening to come out since almost the beginning.

“A man who leaves his wife and child behind with such an excuse doesn’t deserve to be called a father. And a woman who blames her child for it doesn’t deserve to be called a mother. So…”, Zaveid hugged Dezel even more tightly, “don’t even joke about being the one at fault. Because you aren’t, _they_ are. And what that woman calls her ‘worst mistake’, is the only thing that she and her good-for-nothing husband did well in all their life”

Dezel smiled after hearing Zaveid speaking with such uncharacteristic serious tone that showed once more how much he cared about him. He pushed back the tears that menaced to come out this time for another completely different reason before grabbing Zaveid’s face with both of his hands to kiss him with intensity.

The older Wind Seraph accepted the kiss eagerly. He tilted his head to the side to deepen the kiss and Dezel couldn’t prevent a whine from escaping his mouth when Zaveid’s tongue began to caress his languidly slow.

“Damn, Dezel, don’t moan like that if you don’t want to spend some hours of comfort sex when we come back to the caravan”

Dezel exhaled a laugh when realizing that Zaveid wasn’t joking completely.

“Don’t kiss me like that and I won’t”, Dezel kissed Zaveid again this time with calm before talking with an apologetic tone, “and I’m sorry. Coming here…I think that’s not been the best idea”

Zaveid smiled with patience before pinching Dezel’s nose with his fingers, like he used to do when he was little and said something that he shouldn’t.

“Don’t apologize. You wanted to leave everything settled with your past and that’s normal, as long as you remember where you belong now and who your family is”

Dezel bit his bottom lip just in time to prevent its trembling and hugged Zaveid again.

“I love you”

He just managed to whisper those three words but he made sure to put all his feelings on them, and he knew that Zaveid had noticed it when the older Wind Seraph answered in the same tone.

“I love you too, Dezel. And now let’s come back home. With our true family”

They kissed once again before Dezel took the hand that Zaveid was offering him in order to finally leave that house behind and walk towards his true home, where the rest of the Windriders were waiting for him and where he would be always able to come back.

* * *

**_A week later (two days before the competition)_ **

“Well. Finally…here we are”

Everyone stayed silent after hearing Rose’s comment, but when suddenly Sorey exhaled a loud ‘ _We did it in time!_ ’ everyone shouted as well with enthusiasm. Even Edna allowed herself to show a little her emotions and smiled.

“God, when that storm caught us last week and forced us to stop for almost a day I seriously feared that we wouldn’t be able to do it”, Lailah joined her hands against her chest and smiled happily.

“Lailah-chan, how many times do I have to tell you that being pessimistic doesn’t suit you at all?”, Zaveid joked while enclosing his arm around Lailah’s shoulders, “everything was under control”

“Tsk, you say that now but your face when the two boars managed to escape from the caravan didn’t show such confidence”

Dezel had to suppress a chuckle when hearing Edna’s comment because even if he had missed Zaveid’s expression when that incident happened, the curses that the older Wind Seraph had been letting out nonstop while trying to catch the animals again demonstrated that Edna was right.

“Sorry, but nothing beats Mikleo’s reaction when one of the Lakehorses went into labor”, Rose said between laughs, causing Mikleo to blush.

“Yes, now laugh all you want, but it was not you the one who had to help the animal to give birth!”

“Come on, don’t be angry Mikleo”, Sorey embraced Mikleo’s from behind and kissed the back of his head, “you did it great”

“Yes, thanks to you we have a baby Lakehorse in our show”, Dezel commented.

“An _extremely cute_ baby Lakehorse”, Lailah pointed out.

“And definitely not much performers can boast of being able to train such a little animal”, Zaveid concluded patting Mikleo’s shoulder amicably, causing the kid to smile shyly.

“Although the fact that you fainted at first because of the nervousness is still there and we won’t forget it that easily, Meebo…”

Everyone laughed when Mikleo exhaled a patient sigh after hearing Edna’s annotation, but by then he had got used to the girl’s tsundere way to show her affection and he just accepted it with a resigned smile. 

Just before entering the city, they had to identify themselves to the knights that were guarding the door. After verifying that all their permissions were in order, they allowed them to leave the caravans outside in the designed place that had been reserved to the circus performers.

“It seems that the Calamity Circus hasn’t arrived yet”, Zaveid commented when seeing that the place where they had left the caravans was completely empty.

“Yes, it’s a little weird”, Lailah showed a confused frown, “even if the competition is in two days tomorrow we have to leave everything prepared, so they should be here already”

“Well, maybe at the end we don’t even need to compete and we win the title of the best circus because our competitors don’t appear”, Rose joked, causing Dezel to snort.

“Sorry, but that isn’t enough. If we win the title of the best circus it will be because we’ll completely destroy Hedalf’s circus. So they better appear or I’ll personally go after them to make them perform”

“I agree”, Edna grabbed her umbrella with more force, “with all what they’ve been doing to stop us from getting here they better not disappear now”

“Jeez, don’t get so serious! I had just said it as a joke”, Rose exclaimed enclosing an arm around Dezel’s waist and another around Edna’s shoulders, “of course we are going to beat them. We’ve been training _really_ hard this month so there’s no way that we lose!”

“And Mikleo and I will do our best to help you give them what they deserve”, Sorey added with confidence while Mikleo nodded, and Zaveid and Lailah just interchanged a smile after seeing the youngest ones so sincerely motivated.

Once they checked that the animals were going to be well attended and they managed to convince the baby Lakehorse to stop trying to follow Mikleo (the little animal had got extremely fond on the kid since the moment he was born and used to follow him everywhere), they finally entered the capital of Hyland.

For a moment Dezel was teleported back to five years ago, to the day when he visited Ladylake for the first time, because the atmosphere of the festival that was taking place was exactly the same than in the past. Yes, it was true that he couldn’t see and therefore the decorations of the place could have changed a lot, but that was a minor detail. The undeniable enthusiasm of the crowd that was around there; the lively music that was sounding; the several food smells that were coming from the multiple stands. Everything was familiar. Too familiar. And Dezel found himself gulping when a wave of nostalgia assaulted him, making him miss Lafarga and Eizen more than ever.   

“Hey”, Dezel jumped when Zaveid settled a hand on his shoulder, “you okay?”

Dezel smiled and nodded. He was never going to stop admiring Zaveid for his capacity to always detect when there was something that was bothering him.

“Yes, it’s just…”, he gulped again, “…this place brings memories”

Zaveid nodded to himself. He enclosed an arm around Dezel’s waist before keeping walking after the rest.

“Yeah, it does. But you know...”, Zaveid’s tone came back to be his usual cheery one, “…we are not going to gain anything getting all depressed. Besides, if Lafarga was here he would surely tell us to enjoy the festival at our fullest”

Dezel let out a chuckle, and he was about to agree with Zaveid when suddenly he felt someone patting at his back repeatedly.

“No way…Dezel? Zav?”

Both men quickly turned around in shock when hearing that familiar voice _and_ nickname.

“Oi, don’t tell me…”, Zaveid’s voice sounded as surprised as the woman’s, “ _Katie_?”

“Oh god, it’s been so long!!”

The woman laughed happily before enclosing her arms around Zaveid, who immediately returned the hug while laughing as well, and Dezel couldn’t help to feel a little frustrated because he would really like to see Katie again. The woman who helped him to be with Zaveid when he was still hiding his feelings.

“Oh my god, you haven’t changed with the years! You keep being the same shameless exhibitionist”, Katie teased, releasing Zaveid.

“Yeah, baby, I haven’t changed one bit”, he winked at her exaggeratedly, making her chuckle, “you on the contrary are even prettier than six years ago. Although I didn’t remember you that fat”

Dezel got pale when hearing Zaveid’s absolutely out-of-place comment. He was about to hit the older Wind Seraph for his rudeness but when Katie hugged him while chuckling and he felt the woman’s round pregnant belly against him he understood it.

“God, Dezel, you _do_ have changed”, Dezel heard her smile on her next words, “You’re such a handsome man now! If I had met you at this age I would have definitely fallen for you instead of doing it for Zav”

“ _Hey_!”

Dezel couldn’t help to laugh when hearing Zaveid’s offended tone while returning Katie’s hug carefully, afraid of hurting her.

“It’s nice to meet you again”, he said sincerely. He had always regretted to have hated her in the first place without motive and not having been able to thank her properly.

“Are you alone?”, Zaveid inquired when Katie released Dezel as well, “I’ve always had curiosity about meeting the man that was _way better_ boyfriend than me”

Katie chuckled when hearing Zaveid’s purposely sulking tone.

“Well, that man is now my husband. And yes, he is in the festival too but he has gone to buy Liara some candy”

“Liara?”, Zaveid’s eyes opened wide, “Wait, have you already had a daughter?!”

Dezel heard Katie’s earrings jangle so he deduced that she was nodding frantically.

“Yes. I am already a mum”, she said with a loving tone, “Liara is about to turn five and her brother is going to be born in a couple of months”

“Damn it”, Zaveid exclaimed crossing his arms, “time surely flies”

“Yes, it does”, Katie’s animated tone turned sad, “I heard about what happened in the circus. I’m really sorry. Lafarga was a great man, and Eizen was always willing to listen when you asked him for help. Accidents sure are terrible”

Dezel felt Zaveid tensing next to him and he deduced that he must have wanted to tell Katie the truth. But they couldn’t do it without any evidence.

“Thanks, Kat”, Zaveid caressed the girl’s arm with affection, “yes, these years have been hard for everyone but hey: now we are here again!”

Katie smiled softly when hearing Zaveid’s animated tone but her eyes kept being sad.

“I’m still regretting not having come back at that moment to help you, but Liara had just been born and my husband needed help with his own business and…”

“Don’t worry about it”, Dezel intervened immediately when hearing Katie’s guilty tone, “besides, even if you had come back we wouldn’t have been able to pay you so you avoided a travel in vain”

Katie nodded to herself before grabbing both of Dezel’s hands.

“And how are you?”, she asked with concern, “I heard as well that you had been hurt, are you okay already?”

Dezel was not surprised when discovering that Katie hadn’t realized that he was blind since besides the Windriders no one knew about his condition. Lailah had made him promise after learning that he was never going to see again not to tell anyone about it, since according to her that could bring him problems to be able to keep performing, so that was exactly what he did.

“Yeah, I’m perfectly fine now”, he said with confidence, causing Katie to smile relieved.

“I’m glad to hear that”, Katie’s tone turned playful, “and I’m glad to see that you ended being together. Just out of curiosity, this knucklehead finally confessed his feelings when you cornered him?

“ _Katie_!”

Dezel smiled when hearing Zaveid’s exasperated tone. It was not usual to see him that way and he was going to make the most of it.

“Yeah, thanks to you I managed to make him confess. Although it took me a while to convince him that he was not taking advantage of me”

“ _Dezel_?! Oh, come on, why are you both against me?!”

Katie huffed, ignoring Zaveid’s protest.

“I don’t know how many times he said that stupid argument to me. No matter how much I insisted him to be a man and confess his feelings he kept saying that it was better to wait. Argh, when I think about it I regret not having gone to you directly the moment I discovered that this coward was in love with you”, Katie pointed with an accusatory finger at Zaveid, who automatically flinched, “damn, do you know how difficult it was to explain my husband, who at that moment was my boyfriend, that we were together _but_ that I had to keep pretending to be your girlfriend? The poor man almost cried the first time that I told him because he thought that I was having an affair with you!”

Dezel had to suppress a laugh when feeling Zaveid gulping guiltily next to him even if it was evident that Katie was only teasing him. Damn, he had seriously had to have a talk with that woman so that she taught him how to manipulate Zaveid so easily.

“Here you are! Jeez, you two should be called the Wind Slowpokes! What is taking you so muc…?”, Rose’s sentence ended with a surprised gasp. It seemed that the rest had backtracked when seeing that Dezel and Zaveid weren’t following them.

“Wait, that woman…”, Edna began, “is not that…?”

“Katie!”, Lailah exclaimed, approaching the girl rapidly, “oh my god, it’s been such a long time…and wait, are you going to have a baby?!”

“Katie?”, Sorey fixed a confused gaze on the girl so Mikleo leant to whisper something in his ear, “oh, right, Zaveid’s ex! I had forgotten the name”

Mikleo was about to facepalm when Sorey said that in a tone loud enough so that Katie could hear him.

“Oh, you two are new”, Katie commented with a smile.

“Yes, they are the newbies”, Edna pointed at the two boys with her umbrella one after another, “they are Sorey and Meebo”

“Hey, I don’t mind that you call me that anymore but at least introduce me with my true name!”

Everyone laughed when hearing Mikleo’s protest before keeping talking. And they would have been talking even more if at that moment a little girl who looked like a miniaturized Katie hadn’t appeared with an extremely anxious expression on her face.

“Mommy!! Papa has no money to pay the candies!”

“What?! Gosh, how many times I have to tell him to always carry money with him?”, Katie exhaled a resigned sigh while grabbing her daughter in her arms while Rose and Lailah let out a long ‘ _Ooooh’_ , “sorry, my disaster husband needs my help. I suppose that you will be too busy to meet again before the competition”

“Yeah, I’m afraid we will have to wait until it finishes”, Zaveid tickled the little girl on her stomach causing her to chuckle while showing a shy smile, “and you better be there to cheer us up”

Katie laughed and nodded effusively.

“Of course. We four will be there to enjoy your show”

Everyone said goodbye to Katie and when it was Zaveid’s turn he hugged her again, and even if Dezel hadn’t any intention to eavesdrop he couldn’t help to hear the words that Zaveid whispered supposedly to Katie’s ears only.

“I’m glad you found the happiness that I couldn’t give you. You deserve it”

Katie smiled fondly before kissing Zaveid’s cheek briefly.

“Same here”, she whispered back with a wink before finally leaving to find her forgetful husband.

“Oh god, Katie’s daughter was adorable”, Lailah commented happily once everyone got going towards the inn.

“Yes, she was”, Rose agreed, “it’s been a luck that we’ve managed to meet her because this city is hella huge”

Everyone kept walking while talking animatedly. Everyone but Dezel who was lost in his own thoughts. In fact, when Zaveid approached him and enclosed an arm around his shoulders he was about to let out a cry of shock, since he was taken completely by surprise.

“Oi, Dezel-chan, you’re even more distracted than usual, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing”, he could perfectly imagine the way Zaveid raised his eyebrows. Damn, when was he going to learn not to answer so stupidly fast? “I just couldn’t help to wonder what would have happened if you and me hadn’t ended together. Who knows, maybe you would be her husband now. And you would have already a daughter and would be about to be a father again”

Zaveid hummed to himself, a tender smile appearing on his lips.

“Well, who knows? Maybe if the multiverse theory is true, there exists one dimension in which you don’t exit and in which I have ended going out with Katie. And marrying her. And even having kids with her. But you know what?”, Dezel’s breath hitched when Zaveid whispered his next words just in his ear with an extremely loving tone, “this dimension is the only one who counts. And since in this one you have had the bad luck of crossing paths with me, I’m afraid that there is no way that I have ended with someone that wasn’t you”

Dezel blushed intensely, and he managed to remember in time that they weren’t alone and that probably kissing Zaveid senseless right then could be seen with not-too-good eyes by certain citizens.

“Tsk, you sure love exaggerating”

“I’m not”

“Come on, now seriously, are you really telling me that in case of not loving you back you wouldn’t have moved on? That eventually you wouldn’t have stopped loving me?”

Zaveid scratched the back of his head before answering.

“Moving on? Yeah, of course. Stopping loving you? Nope, I don’t think so”

Dezel gulped loudly. And this time, he didn’t bother at all about what other people could think and kissed Zaveid intensely, causing the man to let out a surprised but appreciative grunt.

“You’re bright red, Dezel-chan”, Zaveid teased against his lips.

“Don’t you say?”, Dezel snapped kissing him again a little too furiously, although this time Zaveid returned the kiss with equal vigor.

“Hey, wait until being in the inn to do dirty stuff!”

“Rose-san, don’t shout something like that! Besides, they are just kissing”

“Yeah, although I see a lot of tongue to consider that an innocent kiss”

“ _Edna-san_!”

After hearing those comments and especially Lailah’s exasperated tone Zaveid and Dezel decided that it was probably a good idea to do as Rose had suggested. Not that Dezel planned to do anything special with Zaveid when arriving at the inn. Although to be completely honest with himself, he wouldn’t mind to spend some moments of intimacy either because at the end the travel had been even more tiring than they had expected and the moments on which they hadn’t been traveling, hunting, training or simply sleeping from pure exhaustion had been scarce…  

“So, Dezel…tonight…”, Dezel shivered when Zaveid’s spoke just on his ear in a tone that clearly belonged just to the bedroom, “…would you like to help me discover if Ladylake beds creak more than Pendrago ones? Or are you too tired for that?”

Dezel exhaled a chuckle.

“How subtle, Zaveid-chan. I’m impressed”

“Oh, so do you want me to be more direct? Okay, Dezel-chan, in that case…”, Dezel suffered another shiver against his will when Zaveid talked again with a purposely rougher sensual tone, “tonight would you like me to fuck you into the mattress until you end hoarse from crying my name?”

Zaveid immediately stepped aside, prepared to receive a hit that to his surprise didn’t come, and his eyes opened wide when realizing how agitated Dezel’s breathing was.

“Wait a moment, Dezel…don’t tell me that you like when I…”

“O-of course not, idiot!”, Dezel exclaimed with a suspicious high-pitched tone, “j-just let’s follow the rest or we’ll be left behind again”

“Oh, come on, you don’t have to be so embarrassed about it! It’s not bad to like a little of dirty talk from time to time!”

“Zaveid, I swear to god that if you say another word...”

“Okay, okay, I’ll shut up”

There was a two-seconds silence.

“But the next time that we have sex I’ll dirty talk you”

This time, Zaveid did have to avoid Dezel’s hit, even if deep inside Dezel didn’t dislike that idea one bit.

* * *

After registering in the inn, they hadn’t much time to rest because they had to go to sign up in order to be able to participate in the competition, so they came back once again to the crowded streets of Ladylake in order to do that.

“Okay, it seems that we have to register where the competition is going to take place that is…”, Rose’s eyes opened wide, “…wow, this time is just in front of the castle”

“Well, it’s logical”, Mikleo said, “the competition was to determinate what circus was the worthiest to perform in order to celebrate the coronation of the Princess Alisha”

“Oh, you are right, Mikleo-chan!”, Zaveid laughed, “we were so focused on competing just to be the best circus that we forgot about it”

“So that means that if we win, the next time that we’ll perform will be in front of the Queen of Hyland”, Dezel commented.

“Well, we’ve already performed in front of the Heads of Pendrago, so it won’t be that much difference”, Sorey said with confidence.

“Looking at it that way you are right, but it’s also true that if Sergei hadn’t been there, maybe we wouldn’t have been able to pass so easily”, Edna replied.

“Yes, Edna-san is right”, Lailah intervened, “Probably in this performance the judges will be way more exigent with the result”

“Well, but that only makes everything even more thrilling, don’t you think?”, Zaveid smiled widely, “besides, now we are much better than a month ago, so even if it’s going to probably be a fierce competition we will be the ones who will end performing in front of the Queen”

“I’m curious about how the Princess is”, Sorey wondered.

“I’ve heard that she has potential to become a good Queen”, Mikleo intervened, “rumors say that she is inexperienced and too innocent but that her intentions are definitely good”

Rose clicked her tongue.

“Well, you can’t trust rumors. Maybe at the end she is that typical daddy’s girl who doesn’t know how to do anything without help and…”

Rose’s sentence ended with a surprised cry when suddenly a hooded figure bumped into her with enough force to make her drop the bag that she was carrying.

“Oh, my apologies! I was distracted and I stepped on you without noticing”, the stranger said with a soft feminine voice while kneeling down to help Rose to take the things that had fallen. Dezel was surprised. Considering the girl’s voice he deduced that she couldn’t be more than sixteen or seventeen but her way of speaking was extremely polite for someone of that age.

“O-Oh, don’t worry about it!”, Rose said immediately with a reassuring tone, kneeling down as well to put the rest of the things in the bag, “there was nothing too fragile inside, just some circus stuff”

“Circus?”, the girl raised her face and looked at Rose with surprise, “wait a moment: are you, by chance, the Windriders Circus?”

“You have good eye, Miss”, Dezel had to suppress the impulse to exhale a resigned sigh when hearing Zaveid automatic enter in his ladykiller’s mode, “but how have you deduced that we are the Windriders and no the Calamity Circus”

The girl chuckled with amusement. It was a pure nice sound.

“Well, it has not been too difficult to guess. The aura that you all show is way brighter than Lord Hedalf’s Circus”

“Oh, so the Calamity Circus is already in the city?”

The girl answered Lailah’s question with a nod, and when talking next Dezel could detect a hint of disgust in her tone.

“Yes, it is, but since Lord Hedalf is a noble he had _asked_ to be settled in the Castle. It seems that the King had no option to reject his petition, since some times in the past Lord Hedalf’s help was useful for the Kngdom of Hyland”

“Wow, you surely know about of stuff!”, Sorey commented impressed.

“W-Well, my mother is one of the servants of the castle and people use to talk more than they should”

Dezel frowned. It was just him or the girl had answered too quickly and nervously?

“In that case could you tell us where the castle is?”, Mikleo asked politely, “because we know where it is more or less but with all these people it would be nice to know the fastest way to go there”

“Oh, of course!”, the girl smiled and told them some concise and clear directions that they immediately understood.

“Thanks a lot, miss. You’ve been a great help”, Zaveid winked at the girl, causing her to smile.

“You are welcome. I wish you luck with the competition”

“By the way, what's your name?”, Rose asked just when the girl was about to turn around to leave.

“Alis…Alice”, the girl answered with a tone that sounded just a little high-pitched, “my name is Alice”

“Oh, that’s a pretty name. Very well, I’ve made up my mind: in the competition I’ll dedicate my show to you”, Rose smiled, “so you better come to watch us and cheer us”

The girl opened her eyes widely before letting out a cute embarrassed chuckle.

“Of course. I will be cheering you in first line”

After that, the girl waved them goodbye and left.

“Wow, she was incredibly pretty”, Rose shut up when seeing the smiles of everyone, “what?”

“I didn’t know that you swing that way”

“W-What?! I-It’s not that at all!”, Rose exclaimed bright red after hearing Edna’s imperturbable words, “I-I just think that she looked like a nice girl, that’s all! Or are you going to deny that she was pretty?”

“No, Rose-san, you’re right: she was really beautiful”, Lailah added immediately, although she was smiling with amusement.

“Yep, she had the prettiest green eyes that I’ve ever seen after Dezel’s ones”

“Tsk. It seems that you have a weakness for that eye color. Katie had them green as well”, Dezel said ironically.

“Well, yeah, beauties with green eyes are kind of my thing. Although now grey is my new favorite color”

Dezel snorted again but he couldn’t help to blush when realizing that Zaveid did mean it.

“See?! Then it’s nothing weird that I see Alice pretty”, Rose said with a triumphant tone.

“You know? I think that she thinks the same about you”, Sorey suddenly said, causing Rose’s eyes almost pop out of their sockets.

“W-what are your saying?”, Rose laughed nervously, “I don’t think she thinks that. I’m pretty normal. And besides, I’m sure that Zaveid’s sexy smile had already conquered her heart”

“I don’t think so”, Sorey insisted with his usual conviction, “when Zaveid winked at her she barely reacted”

“But when you told her that you were going to dedicate your show to her, she has blushed. So who knows, maybe you have a chance with her”

Rose was so busy opening and closing her mouth that she didn’t bother to deny the last words that Mikleo said with a smirk.

 “If you are quickly you can still catch her. She has stopped in that stand”

Rose looked where Edna was pointing to discover that she was right. She bit her bottom lip, still hesitating, before speaking with a completely uncharacteristic indecisive tone.

“But we still have to register for the competition…”

“For goodness sake, Rose, stop making excuses and go after her already. We’ll register you”

Everyone couldn’t help to laugh when Dezel practically snapped those words, causing Rose to blush a little more before smiling gratefully.

“Okay, then I’ll see you tonight at the inn”

“Remember to ask for a new room if you end coming with company not to bother Lailah and Edna”

Rose half-closed her eyes at Mikleo ‘threateningly’ before quickly approaching Alice, whose face immediately brightened when seeing the redhead again.

“Just out of curiosity Lailah-chan, did you know it?”

“No, I didn’t”, Lailah showed a surprised but happy smile while looking at the two girls chatting animatedly, “after all she never showed to be romantically interested in anyone”

“Yes, she and I have always been rather asexual”, Edna commented in a completely natural tone.

“Tsk, she has some nerve”, Dezel crossed his arms in a slight sulking way, “she is always telling us not to hide things from the rest but then she does exactly the same”

“Maybe not even herself knew it…”, Sorey looked at Mikleo in disbelief when this one let out a mischievous chuckle, “M-Mikleo, are you alright…?”

“Oh, yes, I am. I’m just thinking about how funny is going to be paying her back for all her teasing”

Everyone began to laugh when hearing Mikleo say that with a grin from ear to ear just before continuing walking in the direction to the Castle. 

When they arrived, the inscription didn’t take them too long but after that they had to specify all the materials than they were going to use to the show and the animals with which they were going to work in order to check that they have all the necessary licenses, so by when they ended it was late afternoon

“Damn, I had forgotten how much paperwork was needed when performing in cities”

“Don’t protest. Usually Lafarga and Eizen were the ones who took care of it”

Zaveid let out a soft chuckle when hearing Dezel’s reply. He was about to agree with him when suddenly Edna stopped and averted her eyes to the side, as if she was still debating between talking or not.

“Now that you mention it…”, Edna gulped, “I was wondering if we could make a stop at Rayfalke Hospital. It’s been a while since the last time I pay Eizen a visit and they only allow visitants until eight”

A silence fell into the group, until it was Zaveid the one who broke the silence.

“Yeah, sure”, he smiled while placing both of his hands on his hips, “let’s go before it closes”

Dezel gulped while the rest of the group remained quiet. He knew it was stupid to feel apprehensive for going to visit Eizen when he wasn’t going to ‘see’ him. Surely, the rest would be way more affected than him for seeing their friend in that too-long sleep. Especially…

“Lailah?”, Edna’s voice sounded unusually full with emotion, “is it okay with you?”

Dezel heard Lailah exhale a soft sigh, and he was deeply impressed when her voice didn’t even tremble while talking in her usual calm and soft tone.

“Yes, I would like to see him too”, Dezel was surprised when Lailah suddenly took one of his hands with gentleness, “during these five years we haven’t been able to travel here since the journey was too expensive so I think it is already time. Right, Dezel?”

Dezel gulped again, this time to remove the lump that had formed in his throat, knowing that Lailah had just told him very subtly that it was time to face reality. Because even if it was true what she had said about the journey being very expensive for them to afford at that moment, it was true as well that he had felt in part relieved for not having gone to visit Eizen, since at that moment guiltiness was practically consuming him.

But he didn’t feel that way anymore. Yeah, it was true that sometimes when thinking about Edna’s brother he couldn’t help to feel guilty, but at least now when that happened he focused on remembering that it was not his fault that Eizen was that way. Not directly at least.

So, after pressing Lailah’s hand back indicating her that he had caught her message, she nodded.

“Yeah. Let’s go to _see_ him”

 Everyone chuckled softly when he remarked that word on purpose

“Well, in that case Sorey and I will wait for you here”, Mikleo said immediately, “if you want we can search for a place to have dinner so that when you come back…”

Edna clicked her tongue and hit both boys in the head with her umbrella.

“Don’t be silly, you can come too. Although now that I remember Rose is not here so maybe we should wait until tomorrow?”

“Well, we can come back tomorrow morning. I think that the hospital also allows morning visits”, Zaveid suggested, because it was evident that despite her proposal Edna really wanted to see Eizen right then.

“You’re right. Then let’s go already to see my sleepyhead brother”

They resumed their walking in the direction of the hospital, and Dezel immediately felt Zaveid settling next to him.

“Dezel, are you…?”

Dezel kissed Zaveid in the cheek briefly before the man could end the question, and for the way Zaveid jumped Dezel deduced that he wasn’t expecting that gesture.

“Yeah, I am”

He answered the unasked question with a smile that caused Zaveid to smile as well while interlacing their fingers together, and even if Dezel would be lying if he said that he wasn’t nervous about the visit, he knew as well that as long as Zaveid’s hand was grabbing his firmly like that, there was nothing that he couldn’t face.

* * *

Less than ten minutes later they arrived at the hospital, and the moment they crossed the doors Dezel could feel nervousness assaulting the whole group again. In fact, Zaveid’s hand which was still grabbing his was sweating lightly.

“Good afternoon”, Edna approached with decision the counter where a nurse was, “we have come to visit Eizen Malak. I’m his sister”

The young man threw a quick glance towards the rest before beginning to check his notes.

“Very well. I remind you that according to the hospital rules just two people at a time can visit the room”

Edna nodded before turning around with the intention of coming back with the rest in order to decide the pairs, but at that moment the man spoken again.

“Also, be careful with not asking him too many questions. He is still a little confused after such a long coma”

Dezel felt his heart stopping after hearing the man’s casual words, and for the heavy silence that fell he deduced that no, he hadn’t heard it wrong.

“What…”, Edna had to clear her throat so that her voice was audible, “what have you just said?”

The nurse looked at them alternatively with a confused expression that turned apologetic almost immediately.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, I thought that you have been informed already. Eizen Malak just woke up a couple of days ago, so for that reason the doctor has asked that it’s better if…w-wait, where are you all going?!”

Even if neither of the Windriders answered the shocked man, it was rather evident where they were going, and even if everyone knew that they were going against the hospital rules, that didn’t stop them from running towards Eizen’s room and snap the door opened, causing the nurse that was inside to let out a startled cry.

“What is the meaning of this?!”, the woman exclaimed, “this is an hospital, not a playground! And you all can’t enter here so please, wait outside until…”

“Edna?”

Dezel felt a lump forming on his throat after hearing that slightly weakened and confused but familiar voice. That voice that he, and everyone, had missed so much.

“Brother…”

 Edna’s voice was barely a whisper. She opened her mouth to try to say something else but no sound came out from it, just a sob that soon evolved into a full crying and that ended with Edna practically running towards her brother to hug him tightly.

“Eizen…”, Lailah’s words came out muffled because of the hand she had settled on her mouth, but it was evident that she was on the verge of tears as well, “this is not a dream, isn’t it?”

“Man, what’s happened to your hair? Your braid was so cool and now you look like a complete male version of Edna”

Dezel’s attempt of keeping his cool failed miserably after hearing that even Zaveid’s voice was faltering, so he just took a deep breath trying to speak through the tears with a voice that was more or less understandable.

“Welcome back, Eizen. It’s been a while”

Eizen looked at everyone alternatively with a shocked expression. Thing that was pretty normal because it had been five years since the last time he had seen his family.

But when, after several seconds, the recognition that should have replaced that shocked expression didn’t show any signs to appear, Dezel could feel a heavy tension filling the room.

And then Eizen spoke. And the words full of overwhelming confusion that he pronounced resounded in the now silent room while digging painfully on everyone’s hearts.

 “Edna…these people…who are them?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After the previous happy chapters some angst was needed -.- I hope that you have enjoyed it despite that and I promise that I’ll try to update ASAP.
> 
> As always, thanks a lot for the comments and feel free to keep leaving your impressions :)


	14. Reasons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update! I’ve been extremely busy with work and life in general and I haven’t been able to update sooner -.-
> 
> WARNING: ** SMUT ** This is going to probably be the last Smut warning of this fic so enjoy :)

That night the silence reigned in a particular table of the inn. After the stunning news of Eizen having lost his memories about them, and after realizing that Eizen’s confusion and nervousness increased after receiving the visit of a family that he wasn’t able to remember, most part of the Windriders decided to leave the hospital in order not to stress Eizen even more, with the exception of Edna and Lailah who remained with the young man a little more.

Dezel forced himself to take into his mouth another piece of his meal. The food tasted exquisite but with the depressing mood that inevitably surrounded them it was impossible to appreciate it. Not even Sorey and Zaveid, who usually were the ones who lifted everyone’s spirits, knew what to say to enliven the ambience.

At some point of the night, Rose re-appeared accompanied by Alice, and Dezel couldn’t help to feel sorry for both girls when hearing their cheery voices from the entrance, knowing that their enthusiasm was going to disappear soon.

“Hey, guys!”, Rose greeted them when she was still far from the table where they were sitting, “I’m so sorry!! Alice and I have been visiting all the stands of the festival and we lost track of time so we have arrived a little too late for dinn …”

Rose shut up after noticing everyone’s expressions, and when she spoke again the smile was gone from her voice.

“Hey…what’s wrong?”, she barely whispered, her voice full of concern, “and where are Lailah and Edna?”

There was a brief silence adorned with the background murmur of the other guests that were also having dinner, and at the end it was Zaveid the one who spoke.

“They are at the hospital with Eizen”

Zaveid stopped talking, trying to give the news in a way that wasn’t too brusque but without beating around the bush either, but that extremely brief moment of hesitation was enough to make Rose more impatient.

“Okay, and?”, Rose turned pale, “don’t tell me that something has happened to Eizen…”

“No”, Zaveid replied immediately, but he sighed and corrected himself, “well, yes and no, the thing is…”

Dezel felt a lump forming in his throat. It was really unusual to see Zaveid not knowing what to say, and that proved how affected the man was, so Dezel decided to give him a hand even if that meant to be direct as hell.

“Eizen has woken up. But he doesn’t remember any of us”

Another silence fell in the group, and when Rose’s talked her voice was so tiny that Dezel felt the lump in his own throat getting tighter.

“What…what do you mean with that?”

“Well…”, Zaveid took the floor again, “according to the doctor he is physically sane but his memories had come back to the time before joining the Windriders, so he only remembers Edna”

“And is there any possibility that he can recover the rest of his memories?”, Alice inquired with a soft tone when seeing that Rose was still assimilating the news.

“The doctor says that it’s still too soon to know”, Mikleo intervened, gulping in an attempt to control the trembling of his voice, “he says that the first days after waking up from a coma are always confusing so maybe he just needs to rest to get better. But…”

Mikleo gulped again but when opening his mouth to finish the sentence no sound came out, so it was Sorey who completed the boy’s sentence.

“…but there also exists the possibility that he doesn’t recover”

Rose exhaled a long sigh before speaking again, with a forcibly animated tone that didn’t fool anyone.

“W-Well, let’s think about it positively: at least Eizen has woken up! A-And if the doctor says that he maybe recovers we shouldn’t lose hope yet. A-And even if at the end he doesn’t remember us we can always… you know… to become friends with him again. I’m sure that it won’t cost us much. A-And…”

“Rose…”

The red-haired girl ended abruptly her complicated speech when Alice said her name, and that simple word spelled with such a tender tone was enough to make Rose stop pretending while beginning to cry silently.

“Damn it…”, Rose bit her bottom lip while dropping into the seat next to Zaveid. She leant both of her elbows on the table and hid her face between her hands, “…damn it…”

Alice sat down next to Rose and began to caress the redhead girl’s back with soothing movements, a sad expression adorning her sweet features. Sorey did the same with Mikleo, who by then was having serious difficulties to suppress his sobs. And when Dezel felt Zaveid’s hand grabbing his under the table, he appreciated but also regretted the gesture because he only felt himself like crying even more.

“Hey…”, Sorey said suddenly some moments later, “Edna and Lailah have just entered the inn”

“Shit!”, Rose looked at everyone through reddened eyes, “will they notice that I’ve just cried?”

“Yeah, they definitely will”, Zaveid answered, “but they haven’t seen us yet so you can try to escape to the bathroom”

“Wait, I am going with you”, Alice said when seeing Rose leave her seat and crouch in the floor so that Edna and Lailah didn’t see her, “I am quite an expert in hiding when I have just cried”

Rose stared at Alice with surprise before half-closing her eyes.

“Okay, I’ll ask about your expertise in that matter later. Mikleo, you come with us as well!”

“B-but I haven’t cried!”

“Yes, but you’re about to and it’s super evident!”

“I-I’m not…”

“Edna-chan and Lailah-chan are about to look towards here…”

“AHH! Let’s go, let’s go, _let’s go_!”

Rose, Alice and Mikleo abandoned the table hurriedly and rather noisily just a couple of seconds before Edna noticed them.

“I think that it’s going to be even more suspicious when the three come from the bathroom at the same time”, Sorey commented.

“Yeah, you’re probably right”, Zaveid pressed Dezel’s hand softly, “you sure you don’t want to go with them?”

Dezel shook his head.

“Having bangs has his advantages”

“Yeah, but you knew that your nose turns a little red when you are about to cry?”

Dezel got pale but almost immediately Sorey spoke with a reassuring tone.

“Zaveid is lying: your nose is perfectly normal”

“Sorey-chaaaan, you’re a party pooper… _ouch_!”

“Idiot”, Dezel snapped after hitting Zaveid, but he had to suppress a tiny smile despite the situation.

At that moment Lailah and Edna arrived at the table, and even if Dezel wasn’t able to see the expressions that the women were wearing he could perfectly feel the tension on their bodies.

“Hey”, Edna greeted simply while Lailah offered them a smile that didn’t match with the sadness in her eyes.

“Hey”, Zaveid greeted back, “how is he?”

Edna clicked her tongue, taking a seat next to Sorey.

“Confused as hell”, she answered with rudeness, grabbing the menu and pretending to read it with interest to avoid looking at Zaveid in the eyes, “she knows who I am because we are really similar but he doesn’t remember much about me either, since the last image that he has of me is when I was two years old”

“According to the doctor we have to give him time and not to forcibly rush things. After all he has just woken up from a really long dream and he needs time to assimilate the whole situation”

Once again, Dezel admired Lailah deeply for being able to speak with such calm. If he was in her situation, if Zaveid had been in a coma for five years and had woken up having forgotten him completely, Dezel really doubted that he was able to keep such a serene attitude.    

Just then Mikleo appeared again.

“Hi”, Mikleo remained standing instead of sitting down, “umh…would you like to eat something? Rose and Alice have gone to grab something for dinner”

Well, Dezel thought while Sorey and Zaveid interchanged a brief glance, it seemed that those three had managed to think off a good excuse for their absence.

“Oh, so Rose-san has come back already.  I was beginning to get worried”, Lailah shook her head softly, “I’m fine like this. I have already eaten something at the hospital”

“Me too, but thanks for the offer, Mikleo”

Mikleo’s eyes opened wide when Edna called him for his name, but for the expression that appeared in his face it seemed that he would have preferred to be called by that nickname that he used to hate.

Just when a tense silence was about to fall in the table Rose and Alice reappeared, each one carrying a plate.

“H-hey”, Rose sat down next to Edna while Alice did the same next to her, “the buffet was almost empty so there wasn’t much to choose”

“But if you want something we can share it with you”, Alice added immediately.

“We are fine, thank you”, Lailah said with a grateful smile, “have you had fun in the festival?”

Lailah’s question couldn’t have been more innocent but Rose gulped loudly with guiltiness when hearing it. She tried to answer the question but the only thing that ended coming out from her mouth was a sob, and that simple sound seemed to be the catalyst to cause everyone to let out his true feelings because all the Windriders with the exception of Zaveid and Lailah began to cry at the same time, Dezel included, who was extremely grateful that his hat _and_ bangs covered most part of his face.

“Tsk, great idea saying that, Lailah”, Edna snapped, using her napkin to blow her nose.

“I- I’m so sorry!”,  Lailah covered her mouth with her hands in shock, “I-I asked it with the best of the intentions! I didn’t want to make you feel bad!”

“Don’t worry, Lailah-chan. They’ve been holding back since we’ve left the hospital. But Rose-chan, you should feel ashamed: you’ve made Alice-chan work for nothing”,  Zaveid commented with a soft joking tone before turning towards Dezel, “and Dezel-chan, you should stop trying to hide your face with your hat because it’s evident that you are also cryi…”

“ _Shut up_!”, Dezel exclaimed bright red. He sustained his hat with even more force causing Zaveid to chuckle with tenderness while enclosing his arm around Dezel’s shoulders, and of course Dezel didn’t make any attempt to push the older man away.

“Sorry, Alice”, Rose hiccupped, turning her (again) reddened eyes towards Alice, “you had managed to make me look presentable but now…”

“It’s okay, Rose”, Alice said with a trembling smile, extracting a handkerchief from her pocket to dry her own tears, “and my apologies to everyone. I know that my reaction right now may look disproportionate because I have just met you, but you seem to be really nice people and seeing you suffer makes me feel bad as well”

“Don’t worry, Alice”, Sorey smiled amicably while rubbing his eyes with the back of his hands, “Mikleo and I met the rest just two months ago but we are acting the same way even when we don’t know Eizen directly”

Mikleo tried to add something but he ended nodding, afraid of letting out a sob instead of a reply.

“Damn, everyone is giving us a weird look”, Edna hissed, glaring at the closest table and causing the guests there to rapidly avert their eyes.

“Well, Edna-chan, considering the lively mood of this table it would be weird that people wasn’t looking at us weird”

Everyone let out embarrassed chuckles when hearing Zaveid’s ironic comment.

“God, we are the worst”, Rose exclaimed, taking the handkerchief that Rose was offering her, “come on, we are the Windriders Circus! We live to make people happy and look at us now! How the hell are we going to make anyone happy like this?!”

This time everyone began to laugh when hearing the girl’s words, and like that the depressing mood that had been surrounding them gradually disappeared.

“Rose-chan is right”, Zaveid said, still leaning against Dezel, “we can’t allow ourselves to get so depressed. I know that discovering that Eizen has forgotten us has been a huge blow, especially for Edna-chan and Lailah-chan”

 Edna bit her bottom lip not to cry again and even if Lailah managed to keep her cool as always her eyes looked brighter than before.

“But there is something that Rose-chan had said before that’s completely true. Something that should be more than enough for us, and it’s that after five damn years _Eizen has woken up_. And there is more: there still exists the possibility that he recovers his memories. Yeah, maybe it’s just a tiny possibility, and maybe at the end he doesn’t manage to remember us, but what if that happens? If at the end Eizen doesn’t remember us, we will form new bonds together. And if Eizen doesn’t remember his former fiancé”, Zaveid looked at Lailah and smiled at her, “I’m sure that he will fall in love with her nevertheless. I’m sure they will be able to create a new love story that will be even better than the first one they shared because let’s be honest: tragic love stories are the best”

Lailah exhaled a breathless laugh, and this time not even she was able to prevent some tears from escaping.

“So Windriders, and I include Alice-chan in this as well just in case she decides to join us eventually, let’s not let the bad news win over the good ones. And for now let’s just focus on what we can do, that is to kick Hedalf’s ass during the competition”

Dezel clicked his tongue.

“Damn, you and your speeches…”, everyone chuckled when hearing Dezel’s resigned tone, “but you’re right. For now, let’s give Eizen the best possible show to prove him how good his circus is”

“Well said, Dezel-san”, Lailah approved, removing with delicacy a rebellious tear from the corner of her eye, “besides, maybe seeing us performing helps Eizen to slowly recover his memories”

“Hey, you’re right!”, Rose exclaimed with her usual cheery tone, “then tomorrow let’s go to the hospital to say the doctor that Eizen is going to see the show”

“Yes, and if the doctor refuses to let my brother go he better be prepared to be hospitalized because of several injuries produced by an umbrella”, Edna said with such a serious tone that no one dared to doubt her words.

“So, in conclusion, our show has to be good enough to beat Hedalf’s one completely _and_ to impress Eizen”, Sorey smiled putting his hands behind his head, “bah, after how much we’ve worked that will be piece of cake”

“Sorey, you have forgotten again the main reason of this competition”, Mikleo said with a patient smile while the rest kept laughing when hearing Sorey’s extremely confident words, “we also have to impress the future Queen of Hyland so that she chooses the Windriders Circus as the main entertainment after her coronation”

“If I were you I would be at ease in that aspect”, Alice intervened with a smile, “I’m rather sure that no matter the result of the competition the princess will love your show”

“And why are you so sure about that, _Alice_ -chan?”, Zaveid asked with an inquisitive smile that caused Alice to gulp, and the tone that Zaveid used told Dezel that the older Wind Seraph had the same suspicions than him about the girl’s identity.

“W-Well, as I said my mother works at the castle and she has seen the princess a couple of times. And according to her she seems to be quite kind”, Alice hurriedly explains while reddening a little when Zaveid’s smile widened.

“Yeah, well, I don’t know why I feel that the princess is a really impressive lady”, Zaveid said winking at Alice, causing the girl to gulp again while averting her eyes.

During the following hour everyone talked about the schedule that they were going to follow the next day while finishing eating, and when they finally decided to call it a day the realized that they were the only ones left in the living room.

“Well, I think that I should be going”, Alice announced when everyone stood up to go to their respective rooms, “my parents are going to be worried if they find out that I’m not at home yet”

“Are you sure that you don’t want to stay the night?”, Rose insisted, but despite the puppy eyes that she offered to Alice the girl shook her head with an apologetic smile.

“I wish I could but I really have to go”, she turned to look at the rest, “it has been a pleasure to meet you all. I really wish you luck for the tournament. I desire with all my heart that you are the winner”

“Thanks, Alice-chan. And don’t worry: we’ll be”, Zaveid said with nonchalance, causing the girl to chuckle.

“Come on, I’ll accompany you”, Rose said, holding Alice’s hand while walking with the girl out of the inn.

“I bet that they are kissing right now”, Edna commented the moment the door closed behind the girls.

“Me too”, Dezel sighed, “and it’s just me or the girl knows way too much about the princess?”

“Yep, way too much”, Zaveid leant his elbow on Lailah’s shoulder, “What do you think, Lailah-chan? Because I have quite an interesting theory about Alice-chan”

Lailah chuckled.

“I think that by now _everyone_ knows who Alice-san really is”

“Yes, the girl is nice but definitely is a horrible actress”, Edna said rolling her eyes.

“Although I bet that Rose doesn’t know yet that she…”, Mikleo stopped talking, realizing the way Sorey was looking at everyone totally lost, “…oh please, Sorey, don’t tell me that you don’t know who Alice really is…”

Sorey exhaled a nervous chuckle while scratching the back of his head.

“Umh…well, I deduce that she is not the daughter of a servant but…”

Everyone but Mikleo, who snapped a hand against his forehead in exasperation, burst out laughing when hearing Sorey’s comment.

“Don’t worry, Sorey-chan. You’ll discover it soon”, Zaveid said still between laughs while patting the confused kid’s back.

“Poor Meebo: he has quite a dummy boyfriend”, Edna said with a teasing tone, but to her surprise Mikleo just looked at her with a relieved expression, “what?”

“Nothing”, Mikleo said hurriedly, and Edna was even more confused when Mikleo hid a smile.

* * *

Less than five minutes later everyone was in their respective rooms.

“Daaamn”, Zaveid dropped into the bed with a long sigh, “what a long day”

Dezel snorted while leaving his hat on the little round table of the room.

“Yeah, too long”, he began to remove his jacket but almost immediately stopped when feeling Zaveid’s gaze on him, “please, can you stop undressing me with your eyes?”

“O-Oi, how did you know that?! I thought you were blind!”

Dezel couldn’t help to smile when hearing Zaveid’s shocked tone.

“I can feel the tension emanating from your body from here”, he said. He threw his jacket towards the chair and proceeded to remove his t-shirt, “the same way that I can hear you trying to suppress a sigh with every piece of clothing that I remove”

Zaveid laughed while keeping staring at Dezel remove his pants to end just dressed with his boxers and a white tank-top.

“And you blame me for that?”, Zaveid proceeded to remove his own pants while Dezel entered the bed next to him, and when the younger Wind Seraph was with his back against it Zaveid immediately crawled over him, “it’s your fault for being so damn sexy”

Dezel clicked his tongue blushing slightly, but just before being able to reply Zaveid leant down and kissed him intensely, causing Dezel to immediately forget what he was going to say.

“Zaveid…”, Dezel whined when Zaveid began to lick his ear slowly, the action giving Dezel goosebumps, and even if a part of him wanted to give up and let Zaveid’s tongue keep exploring at its heart content he summoned up all his self-control to push Zaveid away, “…Zaveid, wait…”

“I know”, Zaveid stopped and kissed Dezel briefly, “you are not in the mood now. Although I could easily make you be with this skilled mouth of mine…”

Dezel laughed before enclosing his arms around Zaveid’s lower back.

“Yeah, I hate your talent in convincing me”, Dezel’s resigned tone made Zaveid chuckle, “but I am pretty tired, and I know that you are as well, and since tomorrow is going to be an even longer day than today we should really rest”

Zaveid sighed but at the end he nodded.

“You are right. Although…”, Zaveid whispered the next words just into Dezel’s ear while using his sexiest bedroom voice, causing the younger Wind Seraph to shiver, “…after we won the tournament this room is going to be our next stop, and I won’t let you out until having reduced those 358 times at least by three or four units”

Dezel managed to suppress the groan that had been about to escape from his mouth when hearing Zaveid’s words.

“Okay, but that will happen in two days so now sleep and stop tempting me, you jerk”

Zaveid laughed when hearing Dezel’s frustrated tone.

“Well, another option is to do some other things…”, Dezel’s mouth half-opened in a silent moan when Zaveid began to move his hips down, rubbing their covered members together,  “…and not going all the way”

With Zaveid’s next thrust Dezel grabbed the pillow on either side of his head with force. He moaned when Zaveid sucked at the side of his neck, probably leaving a mark, and against his will Dezel found himself beginning to fall into the rhythm that Zaveid’s hips were imposing him.

“Damn it, okay, but we’ll do just this”, Dezel snarled, forcing Zaveid’s mouth on him furiously while opening more his legs.

Zaveid answered with a grunt, but instead of keeping moving as Dezel was expecting this one was startled when stopping feeling Zaveid over him.

“What the hell?”, Dezel blurted out. Damn, if Zaveid left him like that now that he had agreed he was going to kill him.

“Relax”, Zaveid’s voice came from the bathroom, “I’m just grabbing some toilet tissues”

Dezel let out a relieved sigh that made Zaveid chuckle while recovering his previous position between Dezel’s parted legs.

“Did you think that I was going to leave you here wanting and unsatisfied?”, Zaveid teased, resuming the movement of his hips immediately and causing Dezel to whine because of the satisfying friction, “although truth to be told…”, Zaveid leant to speak just against Dezel’s mouth, their lips brushing lightly with every word the older Wind Seraph spelled, “…your needy expression really turns me on”

Dezel managed to bite back a groan when Zaveid speeded up the pace of his movements, rutting against him with more vigor. Dezel’s nails began to pierce Zaveid’s lower back but that only made Zaveid even more aroused, causing the older man to stop briefly his actions to begin to lower Dezel’s underwear.

“Wait…”, Dezel felt his heart skip a beat with concern and unwanted anticipation when feeling his member exposed, “I thought that we weren’t going to…”

“And we aren’t”, Zaveid captured Dezel’s mouth again and this one groaned inside Zaveid’s mouth when feeling Zaveid’s hard member just against his own, “but doing directly feels so much better”

Dezel felt himself blushing when hearing Zaveid’s words but since just at that moment Zaveid began to grind against him again the only thing he could do was to bite Zaveid’s shoulder not to moan too loudly.

 _Shit_ , Dezel thought while feeling his orgasm slowly approaching. A part of him really wanted to be reckless and go all the way with Zaveid, to feel Zaveid moving exactly that way but inside him, but they couldn’t do that, not if they wanted to be in perfect shape the next day, so that night they had to be content with just that even if it wasn’t enough for either of them.

“Zaveid…”, Dezel kissed Zaveid again messily, since it was not easy to kiss while the man moved with such a rhythm, “I’m close”

Zaveid’s only answer was to extend one of his arms toward the toilet tissues without slowing down and without stopping kissing Dezel for even one second, and when after several more thrusts Dezel exhaled hurriedly Zaveid’s name this one covered both of their members just in time to stop the mess that both of their releases were going to cause.

Dezel hissed when Zaveid cleaned his oversensitive member. Dezel pulled up his boxers again and remained lying, breathing a little laboredly while Zaveid stood up briefly to throw the stained tissues to the paper can of the room. After that Zaveid climbed into bed again and lied facing up. Dezel immediately curled against Zaveid and placed a hand over the man’s naked chest while Zaveid placed his own over Dezel’s one, grabbing it.

“Hey…”, Dezel asked with certain hesitation, “about Eizen…are you really alright?”

Zaveid smiled and kissed Dezel’s forehead softly.

“Yeah, I am. Obviously I would prefer that he remembered us but I have the feeling that Eizen will eventually recover his memory”, Zaveid’s smile turned amused while looking at Dezel, “what, were you afraid that I was pretending with my previous motivational speeches?”

Dezel clicked his tongue with certain frustration.

“Tsk, you can’t blame me for that. You are always acting cheery and sometimes it’s impossible to know if the way you act is in reality the way you feel or not”

Zaveid laughed when hearing Dezel’s sulking tone.

“Well, it’s true that I always use my sense of humor when bad things happen but I never pretend. It’s just my way of facing them”

Dezel grunted a little reluctantly but at the end he decided to trust Zaveid’s words.  

“And now we should sleep, Dezel-chan”, Zaveid turned the lights off and covered him and Dezel with the sheets, “because if you have energy to talk that means that you aren’t as tired as you’ve claimed aaand then maybe we have a second wilder round”

Dezel let out a sigh full of patient even if he couldn’t deny Zaveid’s words. However, before going to sleep there was something that had been rounding his head for a while and that he was very curious to know.

“Alright but before that can I make you a question?”

Zaveid smiled with amusement.

“Dezel-chan, I think that there is enough trust between us so that you can ask me anything directly instead of asking me if you can ask me something…damn, what a tongue-twister”

Dezel let out a short chuckle before talking again.

“Okay, I was just wondering…have you ever cried?”, for the pause that followed Dezel knew that he had to explain himself better, “I mean, I guess that when you were a baby you had to do it for sure but I think that I’ve never seen you shed a single tear. Not even when Lafarga died, or when Eizen fell in that coma”

Zaveid looked at Dezel surprised before scratching the back of his head, thinking deeply.

“Well, if I’m completely honest I don’t exactly remember the last time that I cried. My memories of my time in the orphanage are a little blurred because when Lafarga adopted me I decided to bury them, so I suppose that during that time I had to cry in a couple of occasions, but after that no, I think that I haven’t cried again.”

Dezel nodded to himself, but just when he thought that Zaveid had finished the older Wind Seraph spoke again.

“However, you must now that the time when I was closer to cry was when I left you behind”, Dezel’s heart stopped for a moment when hearing Zaveid’s words, “because when Lafarga died, I was more furious than sad when discovering that Hedalf had been the one behind it. And when Eizen ended in a coma, even if I obviously regretted it I had the hope that he would eventually wake up. But leaving you behind in the way I did it’s something that, as I’ve said several times, I will _always_ regret”, Zaveid exhaled a nervous laugh, “in fact, sometimes I still don’t believe that you have forgiven me. It seems too good to be true”

Dezel let out a sigh before hugging Zaveid tightly.

“Well, if I’m completely honest when I think about the matter a part of me can’t help to want to kick your ass. But I know that because of that decision you have suffered as much as me, maybe even more. So believe it or not, I have forgiven you. Although if you ever do something like that again, you must know that I won’t let you go. Not without a proper reason”

Zaveid gulped, and Dezel detected certain guiltiness in that gesture.

“About my reasons for leaving…”

Dezel waited for Zaveid to end the sentence but when he didn’t he decided to press him a little.

“Yeah?”

After a brief pause Zaveid sighed and shook his head.

“Nothing, I was just going to say that I should have told you something but it’s a little too late to fix that. So I will simply accept that you are dummy enough to want a disaster like me as your boyfriend again”

Dezel had the feeling that Zaveid was going to say something different than he had ended saying, but since he didn’t particularly want to keep talking about it he decided to let it and wished Zaveid goodnight before giving his back to the older Wind Seraph so that he could cuddle him from behind.

As always, Zaveid’s familiar warmth made Dezel begin to instantly drown in a relaxing daze, and although Dezel believed to hear Zaveid say something like: ‘ _It’s better this way_ ’, he fell completely asleep before being able to make a mental note about asking Zaveid about it the next day.

* * *

The next morning everyone stood up extremely early. Dezel had slept through the night but there were fragments of images in his mind that indicated him that he had been dreaming things related to Eizen and the next day of the competition, although that didn’t surprise him because every time that an important event was close his nervousness caused him to have dreams about it, and not precisely good ones, so he just hoped that that day he was able to sleep well.

After having a quick breakfast they separated in two groups. One of them, composed of Rose, Edna and Lailah, came back to the hospital to visit Eizen again and to ask the doctor if the man could go to watch the competition. Meanwhile, the rest of the Windriders went to the plaza that was just in front of the castle where three giant big tops had been mounted. The biggest one was the place in which the Calamity Circus and the Windriders Circus would do their respective performances the next day, while the other two, smaller than the first ones and situated more far away from the castle, were private big tops for both of the Circus so that they could spend the day training.

Dezel tensed when feeling movement in the big top that belonged to Hedalf, but Zaveid, Mikleo and Sorey verified that even if there were several people transporting material inside the big top, there was no sign of Hedalf and Symonne.

“We’ll eventually see them”, Zaveid said with conviction when they came back with Dezel.

“Yeah, knowing that pretentious bastard he will surely show up to let us now that he is going to be the winner”, Dezel added with a tone full of repulsion.

“Well, there’s no charge for dreaming”, Mikleo replied, causing Sorey to chuckle.

“Wow, Mikleo, you are learning to be more optimistic, that’s great!”, Sorey exclaimed happily, causing Mikleo to blush with certain embarrassment.

“Don’t worry, Mikleo, I’m in the same situation than you”, Dezel said with a resigned tone, “it’s the result of being around a bunch of idiotic optimistic people”

“You know, Dezel-chan, you only have to learn to improve _just lightly_ your compliments and it will be perfect”, Zaveid teased, causing Dezel to smile playfully at him.

“Don’t ask for miracles”, he replied, causing Zaveid to laugh before kissing him.

They spent the rest of the afternoon transporting the caravan with the animals towards their private big top. It was a tough process because even if the streets were really spacious there were a lot of people around because of the festival, and even if several Ladylake Knights accompanied them to make the transporting process easier, it took them almost two hours to go from the entrance of the city to the castle when normally it just took less than twenty minutes.

After the animals were put in cages and they were sure that the baby Lakehorse wasn’t able to escape to investigate (it wasn’t the first time that it happened because the little animal was extremely curious) Sorey and Zaveid supervised the assembly of the structure for the tightrope show that was taking place in the main big top while Dezel and Mikleo revised that they had all the materials that they needed. They had to go to buy a couple of things that had been damaged during the travel but almost everything was in perfect shape.

Another two hours passed and just when they decided to go to grab something to eat the girls arrived.

“Sorry!”, Rose said a little breathless, “It has taken us a while to convince the doctor and…”

“Wait, have you been all this time trying to convince him?!”, Mikleo exclaimed with his eyes wide opened.

“Of course not, silly, you’ve not let Rose finish”, Edna replied, “after convincing the man we’ve gone to visit Eizen and he was way better and calmed, so he had been asking us a lot of things”

“Wow, that’s great!”, Zaveid exclaimed with such enthusiasm that Edna couldn’t help to smile as well.

“Yes, but we haven’t helped you at all this morning because of that…”, Lailah apologized with guiltiness.

“Oh, don’t worry, we haven’t had any problems”, Sorey reassured before exhaling a laugh, “it’s just been a little difficult to bring the caravans but that’s all”

“Yeah, just be in charge of cooking lunch and we’ll forgive you”,  Dezel said, causing Lailah to chuckle.

“Of course. Leave that to us”

“By the way, have you had news of that bastard?”, Edna inquired.

Everyone understood immediately who she was talking about, and Dezel was about to answer with a negative when suddenly, as if it had been invoked by Edna’s words, a figure appeared just in the entrance of their big top. A figure that caused an indescribable unanimous animadversion and hate fell in the until then peaceful room.

“Good afternoon, Windriders. It has been a while”

Dezel gritted his teeth when hearing that familiar condescending voice. He hadn’t liked it the first time that he heard it but now he absolutely detested it. Damn. Hedalf, the man who had destroyed their lives five years ago because of his ambition, was there, in front of them, and  for the way everyone’s body was in tension Dezel deduced that he wasn’t the only one who was having difficulties not to jump into that man’s throat

“Lord Hedalf”, it was Lailah the first one in talking, “you are braver that I thought, showing yourself here without any kind of protection”

“Yeah, I didn’t know that you were so willing to make your performance with a couple of broken arms or legs”, Zaveid said with a menacing tone.

“Come on, Windriders”, Hedalf’s said with an enervating conciliatory tone, “stop with the useless threats. You and I know that in case of hurting me the least of your problems would be to be disqualified”

“Well, that is the only thing that matter to us now, so I just recommend you that tomorrow after the competition you leave out of here the fastest you can”, Zaveid replied with a sharp smile that made Hedalf’s one freeze for a moment.

“So? What brings you here, Hedalf?”, Rose asked with a cold tone, crossing her arms.

“I just wanted to come to pay my respects”, Hedalf made an obvious mocking inclination, “and, of course, to wish you luck for tomorrow show”

“Well, you can keep your luck”, Mikleo intervened suddenly, his purple eyes showing an unusual anger, “because you are going to need it”

Hedalf exhaled a short amused chuckle.

“I see that you have more members by your side”, Hedalf fixed his eyes on Sorey and Mikleo, who looked back at him with defiant eyes, “you look rather promising. It’s a pity that you haven’t decided to join my circus. You would have assured a brighter future”

“No, thank you. We prefer being in a circus that doesn’t torture and experimenting with animals”

Sorey’s cutting and direct response made Hedalf’s expression darken.

“Careful with your words, kid”, Hedalf warned with a dangerous tone, “It’s not safe to talk about certain matters without having evidence”

Sorey didn’t seem affected in the least, and in fact his next words spelled with confidence surprised not just Hedalf but everyone.

“We will see about that”

Dezel frowned. Sorey was always confident but his answer right then seemed to indicate that he knew something that the rest didn’t.

“By the way, where is your precious daughter?”, Edna intervened suddenly, grabbing the umbrella with force, “I would really want to see her again”

“Do you mean Symonne?”, Hedalf let out a disappointed sigh, “she hadn’t wanted to come. I think that that useless woman still feels guilty about that accident of five years ago”

“I think that the exact word would be murderer, Lord Hedalf, not accident”

Hedalf tensed again and turned to look at Dezel when hearing his answer.

“Oh, it seems that the youngest Wind Seraph has grown up quite a lot during this time”, Hedalf smiled cruelly, “I’m impressed. To be able to participate in the show despite being a _disabled_ is really commendable”

 Dezel settled a hand over Zaveid’s shoulder when feeling the man’s murderous aura, and that allowed him to calm down to answer Hedalf with firmness.

“Thanks, but I wouldn’t be here now if it wasn’t for the rest so they are the ones who have to be praised”

Hedalf hummed to himself.

“And I suppose that with ‘the rest’ you concretely mean Zaveid ‘of the Promise’”, Hedalf pointed out casually, “after all, if he hadn’t left the circus five years ago _you_ would have been the one in abandoning it”

Dezel felt his heart stop after hearing those words, and his confusion must have shown in his expression because Hedalf chuckled.

“ _Oh_ …”, Hedalf’s smile widened, “so they haven’t told you anything about how Zaveid ‘of the Promise’ had to leave his precious circus and forfeit his title as a Wind Seraph because otherwise the information of your blindness would have _accidentally_ spread?”

Dezel felt a cold sweat forming in all his body.

What was Hedalf talking about? Zaveid had told him that he had left to find a way to destroy Hedalf, so what was that bastard saying then?

“And about that, I have to show Zaveid my gratitude”, Hedalf added, “he fulfilled his promise of not coming back during five years. It must have been tough, leaving all behind for your loved one’s sake and returning to discover that he hated you instead of being grateful to…”

Hedalf sentence was cut when with a couple of rapid steps Lailah approached him and slapped him in the face with force.

“Out”, she simply hissed, and even if it was evident that Hedalf wanted to respond to Lailah, he simply inclined his head softly. After all, hitting a woman wasn’t going to be good to his reputation.

“Very well. See you tomorrow, Windriders. Spend a nice afternoon of training”

Dezel didn’t ever hear Hedalf leave the big top since the words that Hedalf had said were replaying in his head, making him begin to feel difficulties to breath normally.

“Dezel…”

Zaveid made an attempt to place a hand over his shoulder but Dezel avoided it.

“Is it true?”, Dezel demanded, his voice barely a whisper, “what Hedalf has just said…was he saying the truth?”

A heavy silence fell in the room, and Dezel’s last hopes about having understood everything wrong broke when Zaveid answered with a single word.

“Yes”

Dezel felt his throat tighten painfully. He faced the rest.

“And you? Did you know it as well?”

The hesitant silence that followed next was enough answer for Dezel.

“So all of you knew it”, Dezel said more for himself than for the rest.

“Dezel, listen”, Zaveid began to say hurriedly, “I know that I lied about my reasons for leaving you but I didn’t want you to feel guilty about anything so…”

“So _what_ , Zaveid?”, Dezel was surprised by his own anger, “so did you think that it was better to hide everything from me?”, he exhaled an empty laugh full of regret, “so at the end you never stopped treating me like a child. You just decide on your own without fucking asking me for my opinion”

“Dezel-san, it’s not like that at all!”, Lailah intervened, “Zaveid did it for your future in the circus. If he hadn’t left you would have been expelled. It was the only option so that you could keep being a performer…”

“And then why the hell didn’t you ask me if that was what I wanted?”, Dezel snarled, turning to look at Zaveid, “why the hell…”, Dezel gulped, feeling a lump beginning to appear in his throat, “…why the hell did you assume that I was going to prefer you to leave for five years instead of remaining with us? Why the hell did you assume that it was better for me to think that you have abandoned me instead of that you have done it with a purpose?”

“Dezel, if I had told you the truth you wouldn’t have let me go”, Zaveid reasoned with a calm tone, “you would have tried to stop me and…”

“And what?”, Dezel stopped Zaveid’s new attempt of settling a hand over his shoulder by slapping his hand away, “yeah, I would have tried to stop you, and yeah, we would have probably got into a fight, but that would have been way better than what you did”, Dezel approached his face to Zaveid, “so you didn’t want me to feel guilty about this? Well, genius, how do you think I’m feeling now after discovering that I’ve spent five years of my life trying to hate you when you were sacrificing for me? And that during these months I’ve been blaming you without motive? If you didn’t want me to feel guilty, if you didn’t want me, or better said _us_ , to suffer so much…”, Dezel exhaled a trembling sigh, “…shit, you only had to remain by my side, or at least explaining to me why you couldn’t”

Dezel heard Zaveid gulp with guiltiness but before leaving him time to speak Dezel clicked his tongue and turned around with the intention of going towards the exit of the tent. However, he didn’t manage to leave because at that moment Zaveid enclosed his arms around him from behind, stopping his advances.

“Release me”, Dezel hissed, “release me, you idiot…”

“I’m sorry”

Dezel stopped his struggling of escaping from Zaveid’s embrace. Wait…Zaveid’s tone right then…had it sounded as if the man was…?

At that moment Zaveid made him turn around to hug him again and buried his face on the crook of Dezel’s neck, and Dezel discovered that no, he hadn’t been wrong.

Zaveid was crying. He was doing it quietly and noiselessly, but the light trembles of his body were a clear prove of it.

“Zaveid?”, Dezel whispered in disbelief.

“I’m sorry”, Zaveid repeated, “you are right in everything you’ve said, Dezel. You’ve always trusted me, since the moment we met. And even after leaving you alone for five years without explanations or reasons, you trusted me again. But I…I couldn’t do that with you”

Dezel gulped. Hearing Zaveid speak with such guiltiness, with such regret, was really hard, and damn it, he was beginning to regret everything he had said, but before being able to speak Zaveid was faster and continued with an incredible raspy tone.

“You are right when saying that I treated you like a child, and that I didn’t take into consideration your opinion. I did exactly the same thing when I fell in love with you and decided to hide my feelings instead of confessing: I just guessed what your most probable reaction was going to be and acted in consequence, without letting you any opportunity to decide. If five years ago I had talked to you, if I had explained everything to you, even if we had still been forced to be separated neither of us would have suffered so much. Because you would have known that I was going to come back, and I would have known that you would be waiting for me. But I just decided that you wouldn’t understand it. I didn’t trust you at all. And…”, Zaveid hugged Dezel even more tightly, “…I’m really sorry about it”

Dezel gritted his teeth, desperately trying not to cry, but the fact that he could perfectly hear some of the Windriders (concretely everyone but Sorey) trying to suppress their own sobs together with the fact that he had never seen Zaveid so desperate, made that impossible, so he simply returned Zaveid embrace with equal force, beginning to caress the man long hair soothingly.

“I’m sorry too. Instead of thanking you I’ve just done the contrary but I can’t help to feel frustrated for not having been able to do anything. And despite what I’ve said, probably you didn’t have any other option but leaving without telling me anything because at that moment I wouldn’t have been able to act reasonably, not after all what happened, and probably if at that moment I had known that you planned to leave the circus because of me I would have tried to stop you. Hell, I would have probably tried to leave the circus myself”

Zaveid gulped. He tried to speak again but Dezel hadn’t finished.

“So, what I try to say is that even if I can’t help to feel frustrated for everything you had to go through unfairly because of me, at that moment you did the correct thing by not trusting me. However, I want you to promise me that from now on you won’t lie to me anymore, and in exchange I promise you to get used to the idea that you’re always going to try to put me above everything. I’ve already assumed that your older brother complex is never going to disappear, and that in case of one of us having to make a sacrifice you’re always going to try to do it first as long as I don’t have to do it. But Zaveid…”

Dezel grabbed the back of Zaveid’s neck and made their foreheads bump together softly.

“Please, remember that I’m not a child anymore. I’m not that ten years old kid that was about to be eaten by wolves and that desperately needed to be protected. Believe it or not I’m a grown-up man now, and even if you are older than me remember that you are not the only one who cares about the other one. That wants to put the other one above everything else. So if at any point in the future a sacrifice is needed, you better be prepared because I’m going to fight tooth and nail to be the one in becoming the idiotic hero”

Zaveid let out a trembling laugh when hearing Dezel’s words. Then, he grabbed Dezel’s face between his hands and kissed him deeply, causing Dezel to let out a trembling sigh during the kiss while more tears fell down his eyes.

“I love you”, Zaveid whispered when the kiss finished, with such intensity that Dezel felt his chest tighten.

“Me too, you idiot martyr”, he snapped kissing Zaveid back with more fervor, enclosing his arms around the older man’s neck and tilting his head to the side to deepen the kiss more easily.

“Tsk, I think that they have just forgotten that we are still here”

“You are right, Edna-san, but they are so adorable…”

“Jeez, Lailah, d-don’t cry again or I’ll do it too!”

“Sorey, if you keep laughing at me you’ll sleep in the floor tonight!”

“Sorry, Mikleo, but you’re so emotional that I can’t help to find it funny! And well, very cute as well”

Dezel separated immediately from Zaveid completely red while the man burst out laughing.

“Sorry, guys, we got a little carried away”, the man said while Dezel dried his eyes a little forcibly.

“And Dezel…”, the named one was surprised when hearing Lailah’s apologetic tone, “I’m sorry. I also knew everything but I couldn’t...”

Dezel settled a hand on Lailah’s arm.

“It’s okay. I already guess that Zaveid asked you to remain silent so don’t apologize”

Lailah smiled before hugging Dezel.

“I’m so happy that you finally know everything”, she whispered, causing Dezel to smile before returned the woman’s tender hug.

“Damn, I think that I’ve cried in these two days what I haven’t cried in years!”, Rose exclaimed, blowing her nose with the handkerchief that Alice had given her the previous day.

“Tsk, same here”, Edna snapped with a sulking tone, causing everyone to laugh.

“Well, a good cry never hurts”, Sorey said with a happy tone.

“Yes, and if Hedalf wanted to ruin our day by saying it he had failed spectacularly”, Mikleo added, now that he had finally calmed down.

“That’s completely right”, Lailah agreed once she separated from Dezel, “so let’s make sure to make the most of this day! Rose-san, Edna-san: you go with me to buy the ingredients for the lunch!”

“Hai, ma’am!”, Rose said with enthusiasm adopting a military pose.

“Haaai”, Edna said with less enthusiasm but with a smile on her face.

“I’m going to check the animals once more”, Mikleo commented, “I want to check that that little devil hasn’t managed to escape”

“I go with you then”, Sorey said immediately.

After the girls disappeared towards the city and the boys towards the caravan, the only ones who remained in the big top were Dezel and Zaveid.

“Well, Dezel-chan, what about training a little?”, Zaveid suggested, “I estimate that we still have half-an-hour until…”

Zaveid’s speech was interrupted when Dezel yanked his head down to share a sudden wild kiss that took Zaveid’s breathing away.

“Dezel?”, Zaveid asked with a breathless confused tone.

“To hell with training”, Dezel snarled, “we are going to the inn right now”

Zaveid’s mouth fell gradually opened when understanding the hidden meaning of Dezel’s words.

“But…”, Zaveid cleared his throat. For once, it was him the one hesitating, “I thought that we were going to wait until the competition was finish…”

Another hard kiss shut the older man up. Deep inside, Dezel was feeling incredibly embarrassed for being so bold and shameless but damn it, he couldn’t help it. After so many emotions and after finally understanding completely Zaveid’s motives, he wanted – _needed_ – to be with Zaveid. Right then.

“I don’t want to wait”, Dezel diverted his mouth towards Zaveid ear and nipped it, making the older Wind Seraph inhale sharply, “do you?”

Zaveid only answer was an excited grunt before kissing him passionately, indicating Dezel that no, he didn’t want to wait either.

* * *

The two Wind Seraphs barely managed to make it inside their room before their hands began to roam over the other one’s body, their mouths connecting uninterruptedly in hurried searing kisses. Both of their clothes flied across the room, ending scattered around the floor, and when Dezel landed in the bed with a thump Zaveid didn’t lose any time in crawling over him to keep depositing hungry kisses down his neck, circling his tongue on his sensitive skin.

However, this time Dezel didn’t have patience for Zaveid’s usual teasing, so with a fast movement he rolled over Zaveid to end in the top of him.

“Oh?”, Zaveid quirked an eyebrow, smirking, “it seems that someone is impatient”

Dezel clicked his tongue but he was smiling when he leant down to kiss Zaveid hardly.

“I could say the same”, he replied, grinding down his hips to make his lower half rub against Zaveid’s member, who was already beginning to get hard.

Zaveid exhaled a chuckle, but for once his teasing response was replaced by a satisfied sigh when Dezel began to leave a trail of hot damp kisses down his body, using his hands to touch all the skin within his reach. Zaveid slowly bit his bottom lip with anticipation when Dezel kept going down until his face was just over Zaveid’s crotch. It seemed that Dezel wasn’t too interested in talking at that moment and definitely Zaveid wasn’t going to complain.

Dezel grabbed Zaveid’s thick member in one of his hands and gave a couple of tentative pumps, but almost immediately he settled his tongue on the underside of Zaveid’s member to give a long dirty lick from base to tip. Zaveid groaned appreciatively, letting his head fall slightly backwards when Dezel began to lap at the tip of his member hungrily, swirling his tongue around the slit in the most sensitive zone, but doing that wasn’t enough to satisfy Zaveid and Dezel knew it, so without wasting any more time he did what he knew Zaveid was craving.

Dezel deepthroated Zaveid’s member in one go. He began to bob his head up and down, purposely gulping when his nose touched Zaveid’s pelvis, squeezing that way his member with the perfect pressure to make Zaveid grab the sheets under him with force in order to prevent the imminent urge of coming right then just inside Dezel’s mouth. And when hearing Zaveid’s low excited curses, when imaging Zaveid’s sinful pectorals going up and down with a heavy breathing thanks to his actions, Dezel felt his own member twitching as a response, a warm desire curling in the pit of his stomach.

Zaveid stared at Dezel through half-lidded eyes that looked brown instead of orange because of the want that was darkening them. Between faltering groans he licked his lips with lust when realizing that Dezel had reached back with one of his hands to begin to prepare himself. Dezel was letting out soft groans around Zaveid’s member as a result, adding a pleasant vibration to the overwhelming warmth that Zaveid was already feeling thanks to Dezel’s diligent mouth wrapped around his member, and since Zaveid feared to end too close to the edge he decided to accelerate things a little more.

With a rapid movement Zaveid made Dezel stop working on his member and yanked him towards his lap roughly. Dezel’s attempt of protest turned into a surprised gasp when Zaveid’s fingers replaced his. Zaveid began to thrust his digits in and out Dezel’s entrance with precision, causing the younger Wind Seraph to enclose his arms around Zaveid’s shoulders as a support while welcoming the intrusion with his teeth gritted in order not to let out too loud moans, since he knew that he’d surely be way louder later when Zaveid was finally fucking him.

However, when Zaveid managed to touch _that_ spot that always caused Dezel to see stars, the younger Wind Seraph couldn’t help to arch his body while groaning in delight. Zaveid took opportunity of Dezel’s arched body to duck forward and capture one of his nipples in his mouth. Zaveid rolled his tongue around the little bud, grabbing the perked nipple between his teeth and pulling with just the necessary roughness to make Dezel become a panting mess, the caressing of his sensitive chest and the continuous rubbing of Zaveid’s fingers against his prostrate causing Dezel’s ass to tighten unconsciously around Zaveid’s digits.

Zaveid grunted against Dezel’s chest when Dezel’s inner wall constricted his fingers. He repeated his actions on Dezel’s other nipple while speeding up the movement of his fingers. Dezel’s pants became more labored, his nails digging on Zaveid’s shoulders, and when feeling that Zaveid was going to make him finish if thinks kept going at that rhythm Dezel made Zaveid pull his fingers out of him while yanking his head back, the sudden violent action causing Zaveid shiver with arousal. Damn it, Dezel being rough because of the impatience was a huge turn on for him.

“Zaveid…”, Dezel kissed Zaveid harshly, introducing his tongue inside the older man’s mouth without asking for permission, although it seemed that he had it already for the way Zaveid allowed him to ravage his mouth without offering any resistance, “…I want you”

Zaveid felt his member throb when hearing the obvious need on Dezel’s voice. His first impulse was to push Dezel against the bed and began to fuck him against the mattress without waiting a single second longer, after all he was more than prepared already, but having Dezel over his lap gave him a better idea.

“I’m all yours, Dezel”, Zaveid whispered against the younger Wind Seraph’s lips before leaning back against the headboard of the bed, his hands resting on Dezel’s hips as a mere support.

Zaveid smirked when seeing Dezel’s expression of confusion turning into one of surprised excitation when Zaveid began to move his hips up, making his member slide between Dezel’s buttocks, clearly hinting what he wanted Dezel to do.

Dezel gulped, trying to suppress in vain the whines that threatened to come out when feeling Zaveid’s slick member teasing his most intimate zone. Dezel didn’t like that position as much as the others they usually adopted because he honestly thought that his rhythm sucked in comparison with Zaveid’s one, but at that moment Dezel didn’t care.

The only thing that he cared about was to feel Zaveid inside him, so Dezel pushed his usual insecurity away and without hesitation he reached back with his hand to keep Zaveid’s member still. Dezel raised his hips and after aligning his entrance over Zaveid’s member he began to slowly lower his body down.

A relieved sigh escaped Zaveid’s mouth when his waiting cock slid all the way to the hilt without finding any resistance. Dezel settled both of his hands on his hard chest as a support and began to immediately ride Zaveid as if there was no tomorrow, flexing his legs up and down with a frantic rhythm that made the bed under them creak furiously.

Zaveid grunted loudly, enjoying that absolutely crazy pace. He dug his fingers on Dezel’s thighs and began to pound his hips up to meet Dezel’s frenzied movements, searching that spot that would make Dezel cry in ecstasy again. He immediately knew when he had found it because when his member rammed against Dezel’s prostrate Dezel arched his body again while crying his name with such primal need that Zaveid was about to come just because of that sexy sight.

Dezel grabbed with one of his hands the headboard to have a better leverage to welcome Zaveid’s slams more easily. He increased the speed of his already wild movements, bouncing up and on down over Zaveid with abandon trying to feel him even deeper.

 _Damn_ , Dezel thought between thrust and thrust. He took back his previous words about not liking riding Zaveid. He didn’t know if it was his rhythm that had improved during those five years, or the almost desperate want that was surrounding Zaveid and him at that moment and that made them be more aroused than usual, but the only thing that Dezel knew was that that sex was going to count as one of the best he had had with Zaveid. Although probably the fact that now Dezel completely understood Zaveid’s reasons when he left, and the fact that Zaveid knew that Dezel had forgiven him completely after knowing the truth, were the main reasons to make both Wind Seraph enjoy everything even more than usual.

“Dezel…”, the younger Wind Seraph groaned appreciatively when Zaveid forced his head down to share an open-mouthed messy kiss, “dammit, Dezel, I love you so much”

Dezel smiled and diverted his hand from Zaveid’s chest to the back of his neck.

“Me too, Zaveid”, Dezel whispered against Zaveid’s lips.

They kissed again furiously, Dezel enclosing both of his arms around Zaveid’s neck and Zaveid doing the same around Dezel’s waist, causing both of their bodies to be impossibly close, to the point that Dezel could perfectly feel Zaveid’s heartbeat against his chest.

Both Wind Seraph continued moving against each other without slowing down, both of their movements becoming more frantic and erratic, and since Dezel’s member was experimenting an continuos friction between both of their bodies he reached his climax without touching himself, throwing his head back while crying Zaveid’s name.

After Dezel came Zaveid kept pounding up into him mercilessly, making the younger Wind Seraph whine with every thrust because of the overstimulation, and when Zaveid finally reached his peak half-a-minute later Dezel moaned his name again when Zaveid sunk his teeth on his neck, grunting against Dezel’s sensitive skin while the last drops of his release filled the extenuated younger Wind Seraph.

They remained embraced in the same position during a full minute, without even talking, just letting themselves drown slowly into the other one’s warmth while focusing on recovering the breath that they had lost after making love so passionately, and this time it was Dezel the one who managed to speak first with a still breathless but content voice.

“I think that the beds of Pendrago were better”

Zaveid burst out laughing when hearing Dezel’s unexpected comment.

“Well, we can’t be sure about that. After all…”, Zaveid’s tone turned teasing, “…you’ve been quite passionate so probably the only way to be sure will be to repeat this experience in Pendrago”

Dezel clicked his tongue blushing lightly, but he was smiling when talking next.

“I’ll take note of that”

After cleaning themselves both Wind Seraph lied down again facing each other, without bothering to put any clothes on yet.

“I think we should go back”, Dezel commented, still a little breathless, “the lunch must be almost ready”

“Well, we could skip it”, Zaveid suggested with a seductive smile, enclosing an arm around Dezel’s hips to force his body closer so that their skins were directly touching, “and go for another round”

Dezel’s stomach tightened pleasantly when hearing the sincere need in Zaveid’s tone, but he forced himself to push his instincts back.

“Sorry, Zaveid, but we are going to spend the afternoon training and skipping the main meal isn’t the wisest move”, he reasoned, causing Zaveid to grunt with reluctance.

“Yeah, it would be unforgivable that we lost the competition tomorrow because we’ve spent the afternoon having sex over and over again instead of training”

Dezel shivered against his will when hearing Zaveid’s words because deep inside he really liked how they sounded.

“Exactly”, Dezel managed to say after clearing his throat, “so as I’ve said we should come back”

Zaveid smirked because he knew the effect that his words had had on the younger man, but he decided not to tease him for that.

They got dressed again almost in time record, but before leaving the room Dezel stopped Zaveid.

“Hey…”

Zaveid was surprised when hearing Dezel’s hesitant tone.

“Yeah, Dezel?”

The younger Wind Seraph gulped.

“We are going to win tomorrow, right?”

Zaveid smiled, hugged Dezel and kissed him on the forehead.

“Of course we will”

Dezel smiled with relief and hugged Zaveid back, feeling at ease.

As always that man’s confidence was all he needed to push away his insecurities and strengthen his beliefs, so when he abandoned the inn while holding Zaveid’s hand in his own Dezel knew without any doubt that they would make it.

That the next day the Windriders would beat the Calimity Circus, putting an end to the battle that Hedalf had begun five years ago, and nothing and no one was going to prevent that from happening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Until now I had just written in Dezel’s POV but during the sex scene I’ve been alternating, hope you haven’t minded the change ^^U 
> 
> Aand since the final competition takes place in the next chapter we are already approaching the end of this fic. Will the Windriders be able to win against Hedalf? Will they finally take revenge for Lafarga’s death and Eizen state? We’ll discover it soon :) 
> 
> As always, thanks a lot for the comments and kudos and feel free to keep leaving your feedback ^^


	15. The competition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ m really sorry for the horribly late update, more than two months since the last update -.-. I’ve been extremely busy with work and life in general and I haven’t been able to update sooner ^^U
> 
> I warn that this chapter is extremely long, mainly because the Windriders’s show is explained with quite detail, so I hope that it’s not too boring and you enjoy it :)
> 
> Also, I’ve narrated the performance in first POV because it looked to me as if the reader was himself in the show, so if someone doesn’t like this way of narrating I apologize in advance ^^U
> 
> Finally, as the music freak I am, I recommend to read the show scene while listening to the awesome songs that belong to the Tales of Zestiria OST. Especially, I think that the song [_Journey’s End_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPL4QbocQOU) fits really well with the Act 5 of the show :)

**Day of the competition**

“Rose, if you are hungry eat what is in your plate but for goodness sake leave your nails alone!”

“S-Sorry, Edna. But now that just three hours remain until everything begins I can’t help to be nervous!”

“You don’t have to be nervous, Rose-san. Yesterday we spent the whole afternoon training and everything went perfect so there’s absolutely no reason to…”

“Lailah-chan, you’re trying to cut the meat with a spoon”

“Z-Zaveid-san, don’t interrupt me when I’m trying to cheer Rose-san! Besides, you’re no one to talk because your legs are trembling under the table!”

Dezel let out a resigned sigh while the rest kept arguing about his not-at-all-nervous state.

They had spent the whole morning checking the installations and the animals in order to assure that everything was prepared for the show, and since everyone had been extremely busy they hadn’t had time to be nervous, but inevitably when they had been forced to stop to have lunch, all the forgotten nervousness fell into the group at once.

Dezel sighed again. He also felt his stomach unpleasantly tight because of the anticipation of that afternoon but he decided that he should try to calm things down because Zaveid, the one usually in charge of that task, seemed really focused on getting on Lailah nerves instead of reassuring the rest.

However, just when he was going to enter the conversation (that by then was about to become a discussion) Mikleo and Sorey, who had excused themselves an hour or so ago to ‘ _take care of something_ ’, appeared again.

“Umh…guys?”

When hearing Mikleo’s hesitant voice everyone in the table stopped quarreling and turned to look at the boys, who were accompanied by an old man whose opulent brows hid completely his eyes.

“Everyone…”, Sorey said with a happy smile, settling his hand over the old man’s shoulder,  “…this is Zenrus: our grandpa. He had come all the way to Ladylake to see us perform and was very interested in meeting you”

“Oh, so this was the thing you had to take care of…”, Zaveid said, his tone indicating Dezel what Zaveid had thought when Mikleo and Sorey had disappeared after saying such an ambiguous excuse.

Not that Dezel knew it because he himself had thought the same (dirty) thing. Of course not.

“O-Oh, our deepest apologies!”, Lailah said, subtly leaving on the table the spoon that she had been using to threaten Zaveid during their previous discussion, “we should have given you an horrible impression behaving like this! Do you want to join us in the meal?”

“No, thank you, I’ve already eaten. And about being loud don’t worry about it”, Zenrus said with a reassuring tone, “this is nothing compared to how loud certain grandson of mine is”

Sorey’s only reaction when hearing that comment obviously directed to him was to smile shamelessly, causing Mikleo to let out an amused and tender chuckle.

“Wait a moment…”, Rose said suddenly, fixing her big eyes on Zenrus, “if you are Sorey and Mikleo’s grandpa…”, Rose looked at Sorey and Mikleo with her eyes open wide, “d-does that mean that you are brothers?!”

This time, Edna and Mikleo’s reaction when hearing Rose’s squeak was the same: to snap a hand against their respective foreheads. Sorey simply burst out laughing.

“Of course we aren’t. Grandpa took us in when we were little and we have just grown up together”

While Rose let out an understanding ‘ _aaaah’,_ Zenrus turned to look at the Windriders with a grateful smile.

“I have to say that it’s a pleasure to finally meet you. My grandsons wanted to be in a circus since they were little and they are really happy for being with you, so thank you for having accepted them”

“Tsk, you don’t have to thank us for that. Sorey and Mikleo are really good performers so we are lucky for having them”

Everyone stared at Edna in disbelief, although the one whose eyes were more opened was Mikleo.

“What?”, the girl snapped even more rudely, “you all think that way so don’t look at me as if I had said something weird!”

“Of course we think that as well, Edna-san”, Lailah said with a soft chuckle, “it’s just surprising to hear you say it”

“Yes, you have even called Mikleo by his real name”

“Oh, you are right, Dezel! Edna, are you sure that you don’t have a fever or something?!”

“Well, Rose-chan, she is rather red right now so maybe she is sick and she is delirious!”

“ _BAKAS_!”

Everyone including Zenrus began to laugh when a bright red Edna exclaimed that simple word with a sulking tone.

“You weren’t exaggerating when saying that the Windriders were a really funny group”, the old man commented with amusement.

“Yes, they are the best”, Sorey said with a wide smile while Mikleo nodded.

At that moment a Ladylake knight approached the cheery and again relaxed group.

“Excuse me, Windriders. It’s time already to begin to move the materials inside the main big top. Do you want to be present while moving the animals?”

“Yes, absolutely”, Mikleo said without hesitation, “if I’m not there that little devil will try to escape again to explore”

“Grandpa, do you want to come with us?”, Sorey said at that moment.

“Yes, I’ll go in a moment. I would like to talk with the Windriders a little more”

Sorey nodded happily before accompanying Mikleo towards the animal’s tent. Zenrus observed the two boys walk shoulder to shoulder with affection.

“They are together, right?”, Zenrus laughed quietly when seeing all the Windriders’ shocked expression, “I knew that it would end happening. Mikleo has always loved Sorey, since they were little. And even if Sorey didn’t realize himself, he loved Mikleo as well from the start”

“Wow, you surely have good intuition gramps”, Zaveid said with an impressed tone, “those kids were hiding it really well right now”

Zenrus chuckled.

“Well, I’ve been the one in raising them so I have an advantage. But also, even if my eyes are old I’ve lived enough to perfectly see when two young people love each other. And therefore…”, Zenrus’s tone became knowing, “…I also can say that you and the young man with the hat share a bond way more deeper than friendship”

Dezel’s mouth fell opened when hearing the old man’s words, feeling his cheeks getting gradually red while Zaveid burst out laughing with surprise.

“Yeah, you definitely have a good eye”, Zaveid enclosed an arm around Dezel’s shoulders playfully, “I have the luck of having this young man by my side”

“You are heavy”, Dezel said simply, even if he didn’t make any attempt to push Zaveid away.

“By the way”, Rose looked at Zenrus with curiosity, “if Mikleo and Sorey aren’t siblings how did you end taking care of them? I mean, what about their parents?”

“Rose-san, maybe we shouldn’t ask something so personal behind Sorey-san and Mikleo-san’s backs”, Lailah intervened then with a cautious tone.

However, Zenrus simply shook his head with a smile.

“I don’t mind to tell you. After all, you are their family now as well. About Sorey, I met Selene, his mother, seventeen years ago. A rainy night she arrived at the clinic where I was working, about to collapse after a really long journey. She was already pregnant then, and since she had nowhere to go I offered her a place to stay. She looked as if she had had a really complicated life, and in the few talks that I was able to share with her about her past I was never able to discover who Sorey’s father was, although I think it’s safe to assume that it wasn’t a man worthy of having as a partner”

Zenrus let out a long sigh and when talking next his voice sounded regretful, although still firm.

“Three months after her arrival, Selene went into labor one night, even if a month still remained until Sorey had to be born. Unfortunately, there were several complications during the birth. I did everything I could but at the end I just managed to save the premature baby. I called him Sorey, a name that derivates from the word ‘ _Sorry’_ , as a way to tell him that I’ll never forget not having been able to save his mother”

Zenrus made a little pause before keeping talking, barely giving the Windriders time to process Sorey’s story.

“And about Mikleo, he was one year old when Sorey was born. His mother, Muse, was a really kind woman who had recently lost her husband. Her brother, Michael, was the chief of the village at that moment. He was a man that cared about the rest more than himself, and everyone loved him. However, his good nature caused him to trust in a person who later we discovered couldn’t be trusted at all: Lord Hedalf”

Everyone tensed when hearing Zenrus pronounce that name, with an anger that could compete with the Windriders’ one.

“Our village was famous because of a really weird specimen of pacific wolf that lived there.  Lord Hedalf asked Michael permission to stay in the village in order to study those animals and Michael immediately accepted. After all, there was nothing wrong with Lord Hedalf’s petition”, Zenrus exhaled a frustrated sigh, “but obviously, we were mistaken. Two weeks later, the wolves that until then had been coexisting with us without any problems turned into almost demonic beasts that destroyed our fields and hurt out citizens when trying to go to the forest. And then, a tragedy happened: one of those beasts managed to get inside the village, and a woman was gravely hurt when trying to protect her son from the attack”

Rose gulped loudly.

“Mikleo’s mother”

Zenrus nodded slowly.

“Yes. It was Muse. After the attack, the people of the village managed to kill the monster, but by when Michael brought Muse to me in order to treat her, it was already too late. Muse died in Michael’s arm, being her last words an ‘ _I love you_ ’ for his brother and a petition for me so that I’d take care of her child. At first, I was confused when Muse asked me to take care of Mikleo instead of asking Michael, her brother, but two days later I discovered the reason. Michael, unable to bear the burden of having caused so much pain to the people he had to protect, and unable to face the death of his sister, took his own life. Somehow, it seemed that Muse knew what her brother’s fate was going to be. She knew that Michael was going to be unable to keep living after having made such a grave mistake, and for that reason, I was the one who raised Mikleo as well. Together with Sorey. And now, finally…”, Zenrus smiled brightly, “…those kids have finally found their place”

When seeing the old man’s grateful smile the sad mood that had settled between them when hearing Mikleo and Sorey’s sad stories vanished a little, when remembering that all that belonged already to the past, and that now Mikleo and Sorey were living happily with them.

“And do Sorey and Mikleo know all this?”, Zaveid intervened then.

“Sorey knows everything about his past, but with Mikleo I omitted the part about Lord Hedalf being involved in Muse’s death. After all, we didn’t have any way to prove the man’s culpability and I didn’t want Mikleo to feel helpless for not being able to do anything. However, some months ago when more monsters began to appear around the village Mikleo came to me to ask me about the death of his mother. I evaded his question, since the situation hadn’t changed, but I think that Mikleo deduced it on his own. He is a really clever boy”

Lailah exhaled a sad sigh.

“It’s a pity that we can’t prove anything against Lord Hedalf yet”

Zenrus raised his eyebrows, finally letting the Windriders see his surprised eyes.

“Oh, so those kids hadn’t told you anything about it?”

“About what?”, Dezel inquired with a confused frown, but Zenrus just exhaled a soft chuckle as an answer.

“Oh, nothing”, he said in a conspiratorial tone, “if everything goes as planned, you will know after the competition”

“Gramps!!”, at that moment Sorey’s voice came from their private big top, “Hurry or you won’t see the baby lakehorse!!”

“Boy, don’t be so loud! I’m going already!”

With way more agility and speed than he seemed to have, Zenrus disappeared towards the big top where Sorey and Mikleo were already just in time to avoid Dezel’s next question.

“I suppose that it will be useless to try to coax him to speak”, Dezel said with resignation, standing up from the table together with the rest.

“Aaargh, jeez! What the hell have Mikleo and Sorey planned? I want to know!”, Rose said with a frustrated tone.

“Me too, but our only option is to do as Zenrus-san has said”, Lailah said with her usual pragmatism, “so for now let’s focus on what we can do and let’s help Mikleo-san and Sorey-san”

“Lailah-chan is right. Besides, the old man has said that we would discover it after the competition”

“Yes, let’s just wait until then”

Something in Edna’s tone made Dezel turn towards her and Zaveid with suspicion.

“Wait a minute…you two already know something about this, right?”

Rose and Lailah looked at Zaveid and Edna with widened eyes.

“Edna-san? Zaveid-san?”

“Hey, why are you keeping a secret from us?!”

“We aren’t keeping any secret!”, Edna exclaimed, but the almost imperceptible way her voice faltered with nervousness was all Dezel needed to confirm his suspicions, “and we are wasting time talking about this right now so-”

“Sorry, but we are going to keep wasting time in this until you tell us what you know”, Dezel crossed his arms, “because certain someone promised me that he would never lie to me again and right now he is doing that. And please, Zaveid, spare me the comment of ‘ _I’m not lying, I’m just hiding the truth_ ’ because I won’t accept it”

After seeing the way Rose and Lailah kept staring at them with intensity, obviously agreeing with Dezel, Zaveid let out a defeated chuckle.

“Damn, Dezel-chan, you have quite a dangerous intuition with you”, Zaveid scratched the back of his head and after exhaling a sigh he spoke, “okay, the truth is that Edna-chan and I didn’t want to tell you anything to surprise you, but now that Dezel-chan has discovered us there’s no point in keeping hiding it”

Edna clicked her tongue.

“Dezel ‘the Partypooper’. That’s going to be your new alias”

Dezel didn’t have time to protest for that ridiculous name because at that moment Zaveid began to talk, and barely a couple of minutes later when he finished Lailah had her hands over her mouth, Rose’s jaw was completely lack and Dezel could feel his heart beating way rapidly than before.

“Is this a joke?”

Zaveid smiled widely.

“No, Lailah-chan. It isn’t”

Rose gulped loudly.

“Then…then this means that no matter what the result is we…we…”

“…we will be able to make Hedalf pay”, Dezel completed with an incredulous whisper.

“Yes. We will give that bastard what he deserves no matter the result”, Edna completed this time.

Rose grabbed Dezel’s arm with force, as if she needed something to hold, while Lailah exhaled a long trembling sigh.

“Oh my god, I think I’m going to faint”

Everyone laughed when hearing the woman’s comment, but when seeing that Lailah was indeed rather pale Zaveid immediately passed an arm around Lailah’s waste to sustain her, just in case she wasn’t joking.

“See? For this reason we didn’t want to tell you. Now Lailah –chan won’t be able to participate in the show”

“What?! Like hell if I’m not going to participate!”

Lailah immediately settled a hand over her mouth when those words fell from her lips but the harm was already done.

“Lailah-san! A lady shouldn’t say such things!”, Rose said immediately, mimicking the older girl’s voice with such accuracy that everyone laughed again.

“Damn it”, Dezel said, still not believing what he had just heard, “I thought that it was impossible”

“Well, if we hadn’t met Sorey and Meebo it would have been”, Edna added, and even if she wasn’t smiling her tone carried an undeniable fondness.

“Windriders!! A little of help would be nice here!!”

Everyone jumped startled when Sorey loud voice called them again.

“We are going!!”, Rose answered in the same loud tone before looking at everyone with a bright smile, “god, after knowing all this I’m super-extra motivated!!”

“Tsk, we shouldn’t have said anything”, Edna said with resignation when seeing Rose began to ran towards the big top while shouting happy ‘ _Hoorays_ ’ at the top of her lungs.

“Well, a little of enthusiasm is never bad”, Lailah said with a giggle. Edna rolled her eyes as an answer, disagreeing with the use of ‘a little’ in that sentence, but a hint of a smile was about to form in her face while beginning to follow the noisy redhead.

Just when Dezel was going to follow the girls to finally help Sorey and Mikleo he was stopped by Zaveid, who settled a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, Dezel…”

When Zaveid’s tone sounded guilty, Dezel immediately deduced what Zaveid was going to say.

“Don’t”

Zaveid raised his eyebrows with surprise when hearing Dezel’s cutting answer, but before being able to ask about it Dezel spoke again.

“If I had been you I wouldn’t have said anything either until being completely sure, so don’t apologize”

When hearing Dezel’s words Zaveid let out a surprised chuckle.

“Damn, Dezel-chan, definitely your intuition is becoming quite scary. Are your sure that you can’t read minds?”

Dezel smiled teasingly.

“Yes, but just the simplest ones”

Zaveid snorted with amusement before kissing Dezel, who immediately returned the kiss passionately. He wasn’t able to show his emotions as easily as Rose, Lailah or Sorey, but Zaveid and Edna’s news had made him immensely happy, so he hoped that the enthusiasm that he was putting into the kiss was enough answer.

* * *

In the three hours that remained until the competition, the Windriders made sure to check everything once again and reviewed the show to make sure that everyone knew what they had to do.

Zenrus resulted to be a great help. The man not just joined them in the checking process but he also offered them to bring Eizen to the circus when Edna and Lailah commented that they had to leave towards the hospital in the middle of the practice, and the good nature of the man was undeniably confirmed when Edna accepted the offer without the least hesitation.

“He is the man who has raised Sorey and Meebo”, she simply said when Zaveid teased her for having trust Zenrus so easily, “so obviously he has to be a good person”

At some point of the afternoon, the members of the Calamity Circus entered the common big top to prepare their show. With inevitable tension, the Windriders paid attention to see if Hedalf or Symonne were there, but neither of them appeared during the assembling process.

“I wonder what they are going to do”, Lailah commented while observing Lord Hedalf’s assistants installing a gigantic cage.

“Oh, I forgot that Rose-chan, Dezel-chan and you have never seen one of Lord Hedalf’s shows”, Zaveid snorted, “unless he has changed his style, I doubt that you like it”

“Yes”, Mikleo frowned and crossed his arms, “Sorey and I just saw it once and we regretted it”

“Lucky you”, Edna sighed, “Zaveid and I went to almost all their shows to know what we were facing”

“ _Yuck_. How bad. But hey, thanks to that we have found a way to beat them!”

Several members of the Calamity Circus glared at Rose when hearing the girl’s comment, but far from feeling awkward Rose simply smiled widely and spoke again.

“And there’s more: after watching our show…”, Rose signaled the members of the rival circus, “…I’m sure that they will want to join our circus instead!”

Rose’s determined words managed to turn most part of the glares directed to her into looks of confusion. However, at that moment Hedalf finally entered the big top and all his assistants resumed their job rapidly, almost with fear.

“Oh, good afternoon Windriders”, Hedalf approached the group with his enervating fake polite smile on his face, “are you ready to watch how a professional show looks like?”

“Oh, I didn’t know that there was another circus besides yours that was going to compete”

Dezel’s casual sarcastic comment made Hedalf’s eye twitch lightly, but the man managed to let out a fake laugh.

“So you are still here, Dezel ‘of the Unclouded Eyes’. I thought that knowing that you are the one at fault for your partner’s exile was going to affect you more”

Dezel smiled.

“I’m tougher than that”

“Yep, way tougher”, Zaveid enclosed his arms around Dezel’s shoulders, “so sorry, Hedalf-chan, your plan to divide us hasn’t worked”

“Yes, so maybe you want to try to sabotage our tightrope again”

Hedalf’s expression tensed for a moment when Edna said that with a voice loud enough so that everyone heard her, causing some of the Hedalf’s assistants to look towards their direction again with curiosity.

“Careful with what you say, ‘Early-Bloomer’ Edna. I don’t think you want to be accused of defamation”

Lailah offered Hedalf a dangerous smile that had nothing of her usual tenderness on it.

“Edna-san knows perfectly what she is saying, Lord Hedalf. You will pay for what you did five years ago. But for now, please, don’t worry about us and get ready for your _show_ ”

Hedalf was forced to swallow the reply that had been about to escape from his mouth when a member of his circus approached him fast.

 “E-Excuse me, Lord Hedalf…”

“What is it now?”, Hedalf asked in a cutting tone that clearly proved that despite his apparent calm, the Windrider’s accusations had bothered him.

“I-It’s about Lady Symonne. It seems that she is having difficulties to deal with the new specimen”

Hedalf let out a resigned sigh.

“Can’t that useless woman do anything right on her own?”, after whispering those words to himself Hedalf turned once again towards the Windriders, “my apologies, Windriders, my stupid daughter needs my help right now so what about continuing this pointless conversation after the competition?”

“Of course”, Rose said with a cheery tone, “just make sure to do your show fast so that the real professionals can show the audience how a real circus is”

“Yes, a circus that does not experiment with animals causing innocent people to die”, Mikleo intervened with a calm town that contrasted with the way his eyes were shining with defiance.

“Good luck, Lord Hedalf”, Sorey completed, “you are really going to need it”

Hedalf’s smile froze on his face but at the end he simply made a short inclination towards the Windriders before following his scared assistant.

“Damn, I want to beat him so badly”

Dezel couldn’t help to smile when Zaveid said that in a low tone that indicated that he wasn’t joking.

“You’re not the only one”, Dezel said, settling a hand over Lailah’s  shoulders, that were shaking with barely contained rage, “but we will have to wait. After all, a fight is just funny if the opponent is destroyed when being in his best condition”

Everyone laughed when Dezel said that with a conversational tone.

“Well said, Dezel”, Rose said patting Dezel in the back, “and now let’s go to get ready. The competition starts in less than an hour”

Dezel was following the Windriders towards their private big top to do as Rose had said when suddenly Zaveid grabbed his arm and dragged him towards the backstage again.

“Oi, what are you…?”

Dezel’s sentence ended with a huff when his back ended against one of the walls of the backstage, but he was unable to protest for the rude treatment when Zaveid’s mouth landed against his, kissing him with such need that Dezel felt his stomach tighten with arousal.

Dezel automatically opened his mouth, allowing Zaveid ravage his cavity to his heart content. He made sure to kiss back with all he had, causing the older Wind Seraph to suffer a shiver while humming with satisfaction.

“You sure have improved your way of kissing, Dezel-chan”, Zaveid praised against Dezel’s lips when they were forced to stop for air.

“I’ve had a great master”, Dezel replied, making Zaveid chuckle, “but what’s gotten into you all of sudden?”

“Well, I told you that you are hot as hell when speaking with such determination”

Dezle chuckled.

“I’m learning from you how to motivate people even when being nervous”

“Oh?”, Zaveid smiled with amusement, “so are you nervous?”

Dezel sighed.

“Aren’t you?”

Zaveid hugged Dezel tightly and the younger Wind Serpah obtained his answer when feeling Zaveid’s frantic heartbeat against his own chest.

“Yeah, I’m ashamed to admit that my nerves of steel are failing me a little now that the moment has finally come. But I wasn’t lying yesterday. I know that we are going to win. And we will finally make Hedalf pay for everything he did to us”

Dezel sighed deeply and stopped the embrace to kiss Zaveid.

“Thanks”, Dezel said against Zaveid’s lips, “if it wasn’t for you and for Edna…”

Zaveid shut Dezel up by pressing softly his index finger against Dezel’s lips.

“I already told you. If you and the girls hadn’t kept the circus alive, the Windriders wouldn’t be here right now. And if it wasn’t for those two boys, Edna-chan and I wouldn’t have been able to come up with this plan. So don’t thank me. It’s thanks to _all of us_ that we are here right now, about to kick Hedalf’s ass and to make a show that would make Lafarga proud”

Dezel smiled before nodding with determination. They allowed themselves to spend a long full minute of slow and languid make out session before finally joining the rest, who obviously welcomed them with some deserved teasing comments.

After checking for thousandth time that everything was ready, the Windriders remained in the backstage since the Calamity Circus was going to perform first. They had a set of reserved seats there to ‘enjoy’ the rival show and from there they had a perfect view of the people that was already entering the big top.

“Look”, Sorey said Mikleo with enthusiasm, “gramps has just entered!”

“And he brings Eizen with him”, Mikleo pointed out. Edna gulped a little nervously and turned towards Lailah.

“He will be okay, right?”

Lailah smiled at Edna and enclosed an arm around her shoulders.

“Of course he will. Remember that he was the one who insisted on wanting to see us perform”

Edna exhaled a sigh and nodded to herself, feeling more relieved.

“Hey, Kat is there too!”, Zaveid said with a wide smile before raising an eyebrow, “Oh, so that man is her husband. Weeeell, he is not ugly but I am more handsome”

“Really, Zaveid?”, Dezel said with such a tone that the older Wind Seraph began to laugh.

“I knew you were going to put that face”

Dezel grunted with reproach but he didn’t reject Zaveid’s kiss.

At that moment a collective murmur invaded the place when the current King of Hyland entered the stage followed by the Princess.

Automatically, all the Windriders fixed their eyes on Rose, who was staring at the girl with surprised eyes.

“Wow, Princess Alisha is really similar to Alice, don’t you think?”

At the same time, all the Windriders but Sorey who was also looking at Alisha with confusion burst out laughing and Rose jumped startled.

“H-Hey, why are you laughing now?”

Lailah tried to answer Rose but at the end she began to giggle together with Mikleo and Zaveid. Even Dezel and Edna were having serious difficulties to keep their expression imperturbable.

“Aaaaah!!”, Sorey exclaimed suddenly, his eyes still fixed on the princess, “so that’s what you meant the other day!”

“The other day?”, Rose kept being incredibly confused, “Sorey, what do you mean?”

“For goodness sake”, Edna exclaimed snapping a hand against his forehead. By then Zaveid was grabbing his stomach while laughing, Mikleo and Lailah were literally crying and Dezel’s body was trembling slightly while trying to suppress his own laughter in vain, “tell me Rose, what’s your girlfriend’s name?”

Rose’s blushed but she answered nevertheless.

“Alice”

“Okay, and what’s the princess name?”

“Alis…”, Rose’s eyes snapped wide opened, “no”, Rose stared in disbelief at the place where the princess was, “ _NO WAY_!!!!”

When hearing the girl’s squeak, all the Windriders that had managed to calm down began to laugh again, and this time Rose joined them, although her expression was still shocked.

“Congratulations, Rose-chan”, Zaveid said, still between laughs, “you’ve managed to conquer a future queen’s heart”

Rose opened and closed her mouth several times while trying to say something, looking like a really funny fish, and when she finally managed to speak it was to let out a curse that made Lailah exclaim a reproachful ‘ _Rose-san!_ ’ that didn’t came as reproachful as it should because she kept laughing although more calmly.

“Oh my god”, Rose scratched the back of her head while exhaling a nervous laugh, “this relationship is going to be more complicated than I initially thought”

“Well, we still have Edna-chan here to try to find an even more complicated pair”

“No, thank you. I’m very happy with my asexuality”, the girl answered without hesitation, causing Zaveid to ruffle his hair playfully, obtaining a ‘glare’ from the girl.

Another five minutes passed until the big top was completely full. At that moment, the King finally stood up from his seat in the first line, causing everyone to keep a respectful silence.

“Good afternoon, people of Ladylake. As you already know, we are here to choose the circus which is more worthy to enliven the Coronation Ceremony that will take in two days to proclaim my dear daughter Alisha as the new Queen of Hyland”

Loud applauses followed the King’s words. Alisha stood up as well and made a little reverence towards the public. The action caused Rose to whisper in the backstage something like ‘ _I still can’t believe it…_ ’ that made the Windriders begin to laugh again although more quietly.

“In the first place…”, the King continued when the applauses ceased, “the Calamity Circus with Lord Hedalf in the lead will make his performance. And after that, the Windriders Circus with…umh…”, the Kind looked at the introduction paper that he was sustaining with a light confused frown, “…well, I think that someone has forgotten to write the name of chief of the circus so…”

At that moment Alisha leant towards her father to whisper something in his ear that made the man open his eyes with surprise.

“Oh, my daughter has just told me that it seems that _all_ the members of the Windriders Circus are the chiefs, so my apologies for the mistake. I will try again”, while the audience laughed quietly, the King cleared his throat and spoke again with his speech voice on, “…and after that, the Windriders Circus with Zaveid ‘of the Promise’, Lailah ‘the Pure’, ‘Early-Bloomer’ Edna, Rose ‘the Rose’, Dezel ‘of the Unclouded Eyes’, Sorey ‘the Shepperd’ and Mikleo ‘the Enforcer’ in the lead, will perform”

The King took a deep breath, almost gasping for air, causing the audience to laugh again.

“He looks like a really nice King”, Zaveid chuckled, hitting Rose’s ribs with his elbow playfully, “be grateful: you’ll have a good father in law”

“Shut up, idiot!”, Rose said bright red, but she was smiling goofily so her insult sounded just half-hearted.

“After both performances, Princess Alisha will evaluate them and will decide the winner, but no matter result we are sure that both shows will be spectacular. And now, without more delay…”, the Kind clapped his hands twice and a single ray of light illuminated the center of the stage, “…let the first circus begin its performance”

The people applauded loudly while Hedalf entered stage, waving his hands to the audience with just the necessary superiority to indicate that at that moment all the place belonged to him.

“Welcome, people of Ladylake”, Hedalf said in his usual pompous voice, “it’s a pleasure to me to be here and to be able to offer the future Queen of Hyland the show that she undeniably deserves. Considering the formidable woman Princess Alisha is, I have no doubt that her criteria to choose what circus is the most suitable to perform in her Coronation will be flawless”

Several loud applauses followed when Lord Hedalf made an inclination towards Alisha, but as Hedalf himself had said the girl wasn’t in the least stupid and had perfectly caught the subtle warning on Hedalf’s words that clearly encouraged her to choose the Calamity Circus to be the winner, so her face while responding to Hedalf’s inclination was lightly strained.

“He is as charming as always”, Dezel practically spat, causing the rest of the Windriders to nod eagerly.

“Again, thanks a lot for this opportunity and, as our beloved King has already said…”, Hedalf offered the public his leonine smile, “…let the show begin”

The ray of light disappears to illuminate now a rather giant cage that until then had remained in the darkness.

All the audience looked at the cage with curious eyes until suddenly a powerful loud growl made the big top tremble, causing the people to shout in a mix of fear and surprise.

“Ladies and Gentlemean”, Hedalf’s voice resounded suddenly in the room even if he wasn’t in the stage at that moment, “let me introduce you our last discovery: an animal that my explorers found in a wild desert island some months ago and that no one before you had ever seen. An animal that just the incredible Symonne ‘the Wicked’ can dominate and subdue at will.  Let’s receive her with a deserved ovation”

Some more applauses sounded and after several seconds Symonne appeared. All the Windriders tensed immediately when the woman entered the stage, but almost immediately their hostility turned into confusion.

“Oi…”, Zaveid whispered, “it’s just me or that girl looks even paler than usual?

“Yes. And look at her arms and legs”, Lailah added, unable to prevent some concern to slip in her voice, “even with the suit it’s evident that she is wearing several bandages”

“Tsk, sorry but I don’t feel pity for her”, Edna snapped, glaring at Symonne while she made a reverence towards the audience.

“Me neither”, Dezel agreed immediately, crossing his arms, “don’t forget what she did to us”

“Yes, I will never forgive her either but…”, Rose bit her bottom lip, “…she really looks as if she was suffering”

Rose wasn’t mistaken. In the brief time that Symonne had worked with them, all of them had time to appreciate how graceful the girl was, how fluid her movements were. But now, even if she still moved with her particular dark grace, her steps were less determined. As if she was afraid about what she had to do.

While Hedalf kept talking about the ‘animal’ that he had supposedly found, Symonne approached the cage. More assistants of the Calamity Circus appeared at that moment and immediately situated on either side of Symonne, as support. Symonne made a gesture to Hedalf’s men and with hands that trembled just slightly she opened the cage.

In the split of a second, the creature that was kept inside left his prison rudely. The animal seemed like a mix of a boar and a rhino but his legs, that seemed to have been somehow transplanted, looked similar to a horse’s. Also, there were several scars on his body, and the shape of them indicated clearly that they have been made with a whip or a stick.

The audience observed the strange beast with fear but also awe, but they had just time to observe the animal in a calmed state for a couple of seconds because almost immediately the creature growled again and while fixing his bloodshot eyes in Symonn, he immediately began to charge at her.

Just when the beast was about to crush her, Symonne grabbed the whip and gave a sharp whiplash into the ground, making the animal immediately stop, although he kept growling menacingly.

Hedalf’s assistants, all bulky and muscular men who made Zaveid look thin in comparison,   took opportunity of the animal’s momentary calm to immobilize his side. At that moment, Symonne immediately climbed over the animal and stood over him. The animal protested when she did that but when Symonne patted with her small but sharp heels the animal’s back, he behaved and stopped struggling.

That performance obviously provoked a lot of applauses, although several children in the audience were hugging their parents with force, clearly afraid. Liara was among those children: she was hugging Katie and in some parts of the performance, when Symonne whipped in the air to cause the animal to do a pose, she closed her eyes tightly, causing Katie to deposit reassuring kisses over the girl’s head while looking at the stage in clear disapproval.

Zenrus and Eizen were looking at the performance with disgust as well, especially Zenrus who perfectly knew that that poor animal had been created with surely inhuman experiments, but Eizen’s frown so similar to Edna indicated that the young man wasn’t liking the show one bit. Also, the King had a rather neutral expression on his face but Alisha was clearly forcing herself not to show her discontent, her usually smiling mouth forming a thin line, since she knew that she had to be impartial in her later judgment without letting her personal feelings interfere.

However, it was evident that, in general, people were enjoying the show. Besides, after Symonne performed with the big beast, more animals that were smaller than the first one but as much interesting came to the stage again, and since the possibility of watching exotic animals that hadn’t been seen before is always exciting, with every new animal that appeared on the stage people were more and more enthusiastic. In fact, at the end some of the children that were initially scared forgot their fear and ended enjoying the show.

Also, at some point Hedalf’s assistants began to intervene in the performance as well. Their actuations mainly consisted of making the animals adopt certain poses so that their weird bodies were properly shown to the audience, and of ‘fighting’ against the animals. Of course, during the fights Symonne made sure to have the whip prepared to snap it in the air in case one of the creatures got excessively excited.

Hedalf just appeared at the end of the show, when the rhino-boar was exhausted enough so that Hedalf could ride him through the stage without any risk, waving his hand to the public who applauded rather enthusiastically for having observed such an exciting performance.

When the applauses ceased and the animals abandoned the stage, Hedalf immediately took a seat in the first grade quite next to the King with a satisfied expression adorning his cruel features. Meanwhile, Symonne accompanied the rest of the assistants at the backstage.

And inevitably, she ended crossing paths with the Windriders who were waiting there.

When seeing them, Symonne froze and become completely tense, thing that was understandable because the looks that everyone (but especially Edna) were throwing at her were everything but amicable.

After some tense seconds, Symonne clicked her tongue and was about to ignore the Windriders but a soft call stopped her from doing so.

“Symonne-san”

Not just the named one but all the Windriders stared in disbelief how Lailah approached the girl.

“Sorry, I don’t have time to waste”, Symonne said immediately in a disdainful tone, clearly trying to push Lailah away, but the woman didn’t move and extracted a little bottle from a pocket inside her dress.

“This ointment is really effective against wounds”, without letting Symonne time to protest Lailah placed the little bottle in the girl’s hands, “make sure to use it and at least the pain will disappear”

Symonne looked at Lailah in disbelief before snorting.

“You haven’t changed one bit. You are as idiot as five years ago”

With those condescending words Symonne left without ever looking at Lailah again, but she was grabbing tightly the little bottle against her chest when accompanying the rest of the assistants to return the animals to the cages.

“You are too kind”, Edna said with a sulking tone when Lailah joined them again.

“Yes, I know”, Lailah admitted apologetically, “but I really feel sad for Symonne. If Hedalf didn’t control her so much, she would be a really good girl”

Dezel hadn’t time to criticize Lailah’s too good nature because at that moment the lights turned off again just leaving a ray of light in the middle, as an indication that it was time for the Windriders to start their show.

“Well, it’s our turn own”, Rose smiled at everyone with confidence and extended an arm in front of her with his palm looking down, “okay, Windriders: what’s our motto?”

One after one the Windriders began to place their hands over Rose’s one: first Lailah, then Zaveid, after him Edna, Dezel followed together with Sorey, and when Mikleo finally placed his everyone recited in a loud voice:

_We always have to do our best while performing, without caring about being watched by one person or by thousandths._

_After saying_ that sentence that they would never forget, Rose began to walk immediately towards the stage with decisive steps.

The audience began to applaud when the redhead entered, although a little hesitantly. After all, the previous show had been rather impressive and striking and probably the spectators were having inner doubts about the Windriders being able to compete.

However, that didn’t stop Rose from standing in the middle of the stage with a proud and straight stance. She waited for the people to stop applauding and when silence reined in the room again she spoke, her voice clearer and firmer than ever.

“Welcome, everyone! I am Rose ‘the Rose’ and I have the great pleasure to be the one in introducing the Windriders Circus”

Some applauses of courtesy followed, so Rose waited again until they ceased to speak again.

“For the ones who may have seen us perform before, I have to warn that the show that you are going to see this afternoon would be a little different. Instead of just performing as we usually do, we are going to tell you a story, so I hope you all like the change”

People began to murmur with curiosity, so Rose let them some seconds to talk among them before keeping talking.

“Also, if this was a normal show I would simply say that we are here to make you spend a great time with us; to offer you a show that you enjoy. But this is not a normal show. Of course, our main objective as performers is, and will always be, to entertain you; to offer you the possibility of forgetting for some moments the real word out there, sometimes cruel and unfair, to immerse you in a world of marvelous impossible things becoming true; to make you leave this stage with a smile on your face with the unsaid promise of coming back to see us again”

With those sincere words Rose managed to gather people’s interest again, but when she continued talking with a tone full of undefeatable conviction, people were unable to avert their eyes from Rose or to ignore the words that the girl said next.

“But today, that is not our only objective. Today, we also want to prove that we are the best circus; we want to show how a true circus that cares about the people who take their time to see us, looks like. We want to honor Lafarga, our father and master, the man who taught us everything and thanks to whom we are here right now. We want that our friend Eizen, who is standing among the audience right now and who has been sleeping for a too long time, remembers us and decides to join us again. And of course…”

Rose smiled with confidence, finally locking eyes with Alisha, whose big green eyes had been fixed on Rose since the moment the redhead had stepped on the stage.

“…today, we hope to convince Princess _Alisha_ , the woman who is beautifully and proudly standing up there, that our show is the most indicate to celebrate her coronation as the surely awesome Queen of Hyland. This show is for you as well, my dear Princess”

Rose made a soft reverence while winking an eye, causing Alisha to smile with an affection that was impossible to hide.

“Soooo: great King of Hyland, dear Princess Alisha, awesome Ladies and Gentleman of Ladylake and everyone who has come from other places, without further delay…”, Rose incorporated again and extended her arms on either side of her body in a wide gesture while smiling brightly, “…the Windriders show is going to begin! We hope you enjoy it as much as we do when performing for such an awesome audience!”

When Rose finished talking, a deafening ovation even greater than the one Hedalf had received was heard in all the place, an ovation that kept going even when Rose made another reverence and turned around to walk towards the backstage.

“Damn”, Dezel exhaled, letting out the breathing he hadn’t realized he had been holding, “it’s unfair how awesome she is”

“Yeah, that girl surely knows how to capture one’s heart”, Zaveid said, smiling with admiration while Mikleo and Sorey applauded loudly.

Lailah and Edna didn’t say anything, but when Rose finally joined them both girls hugged the redhead with force.

“Spectacular presentation”, Lailah whispered, her voice full of emotion, “Lafarga would be so proud of you”

Rose exhaled a breathless laugh, biting her bottom lip that had begun to tremble.

“Jeez, don’t say that just now or I’ll cry”, she protested, although she returned the girls’ hug with equal force.

“We should get into position”, Edna commented simply, but the way she had cleared her throat before speaking betrayed her, showing that Rose’s speech had reached her as well.

“You’re right, Edna-chan. Everyone remembers his role, right?”

All the Windriders nodded at the same time.

“We are the first”, Sorey grabbed Mikleo’s hand, which was trembling just slightly, “are you ready, Mikleo?”

The white haired boy exhaled a long breath but when he turned to look at Sorey his purple eyes were shining with determination.

“More than ever”, he said with an overconfident tone that had nothing to envy Zaveid’s one.

Just when Dezel was going to follow the rest’s example and set into position his arm was grabbed in a really familiar way and the next thing he felt were Zaveid’s demanding lips against his own.

“Make sure to wait for me up there, Dezel-chan”

Dezel smiled and kissed Zaveid again with force.

“Always, Zaveid-chan”

Zaveid chuckled playfully and with a last kiss they both took their position to finally give way to the Windriders show.

 

*********************************

**Act I – Deathly Rose**

*********************************

� � � � � �

Mikleo and Sorey appear running from the backstage. They stop in the middle of the scenario and lean their hands over their flexed legs, breathing heavily.

“Do you think that we have managed to lose them?”, Sorey asks with a worried tone.

Mikleo shakes his head and incorporates.

“I doubt it, but at least we have bought some time”

Sorey lets out a loud sigh and crosses his arms.

“If that Lord hadn’t made our animals become crazy we wouldn’t have been forced to abandon our village!”

“I know, but precisely for that reason we have to find someone who can help u- _Sorey, watch out_!”

At that moment, three big boars appear in the stage, causing the audience to let out surprised shouts.

“Oh no”, Sorey and Mikleo position themselves back to back while the boars begin to circle around them while growling threateningly, “Mikleo, what should we do?”

The boars keep walking around the two boys and the youngest children among the audience begin to murmur with nervousness.

“There is no other way”, Mikleo grabbed his staff in an horizontal position with both of his hands, “Sorey, keep still”

Just when the boars settle into position to attack, Mikleo raises his staff above his head. That simple gesture causes the boars to immediately stop grunting while remaining completely quiet. Slowly, Mikleo begins to lower his hands. The new action is followed as well by the boars which end sitting obediently, and the audience who until then has been murmuring with admiration begins to applaud between laughs when suddenly Sorey pets one of the animal’s head as if it was the most normal thing to do.

“Great job, Mikleo! Your talent of domestication is awesome!”

“Bah, it’s not such a big deal”, Mikleo comments casually, circling his index finger in the air to make the biggest boar begin to roll on the ground as if he was a dog. All the children in the big top and several adults begin to laugh when seeing that.

“Hey! I’ve had just an idea”, Sorey smiles widely, “why don’t we use the boars to go to the city?! Maybe there we can find someone willing to help us!”

“Oh, good thinking! But we have three boars and we are only two, so we should decide what boar we choose to-”

“ _Not so fast!_ ”

At that moment a ray of light illuminates one of the grandstands to show Rose sitting there as if she was a common spectator. The audience applauds and the people on either side of Rose look at her with surprise, since thanks to the darkness the girl had managed to sit there and nobody had recognized her.

“I am interested in that boar”, Rose stands up from her seat and walks towards the stage again, “I need to go to the city to make a little _job_ ”

 “What kind of job?”, Mikleo asks with a suspicious tone.

“I have to sell certain items as the simple merchant I am”, Rose answers with an innocent smile.

“Aham. And a simple merchant needs that pair of knifes?”

Rose remains with her innocent smile for a couple of seconds before clicking her tongue loudly.

“Damn it! You have discovered me. Very well, in that case I’ll ask it differently”

Rose suddenly runs towards the first line of seats and drags a shocked eleven years old girl towards the stage.

“Very well, I’ll stop with the lies: I’m not a merchant but an assassin and if you don’t give me the boar…”, Rose extracts a rubber knife from her pocket and holds it in the air menacingly while keeping grabbing with her other hand the girl’s shoulder, “…I’ll kill this girl!”

“Okay, we’ll give you the boar!”, Sorey and Mikleo exclaim at the same time with fear, but at that moment a child voice is heard from somewhere.

“ _That knife is not real!_ ”

“WHAT?!”, Rose turns dramatically towards the stage, trying to pinpoint that voice, “that it’s not real?! HAH! Look at this!”

 Rose begins to poke at the girl’s ribs with the knife, causing her to begin to laugh because the redhead is tickling her.

“See?! She is crying in deep pain! Of course the knife is real!”

The girl’s laughter and Rose’s goofy actuation causes the audience to laugh while more children join the first one saying things like ‘ _It’s not a real knife!_ ’, ‘ _She is fooling you!_ ’.

“Argh, okay, okay, it wasn’t a real knife so you can have it”

Rose hands the rubber knife to the girl who opens her mouth with surprise. The girl whispers a shy ‘ _thank you_ ’ before coming back to her seat, looking really happy for having been participated in the show.

“But I wasn’t lying”, Rose continues, this time extracting her knives and beginning to play with them by throwing them in the air to catch them again with fluency, “I am an assassin and I need to go to the city for a job, so you better give me that boar”

“No. We are not letting you go to the city to kill someone”, Mikleo says crossing his arms, the apparent casual gesture making the boars begin to grunt towards Rose menacingly again.

“Okay, how about this?”, at that moment Sorey extracts the sword from his belt, “we will have a battle to decide it”

“Oh, so if I win I’ll have the boar?”

“No, you’ll have the boar no matter if you win or lose, but if you lose…”, Sorey smiles widely, “you’ll join us instead and will help us to take revenge on the Lord that destroyed our village”

Rose lets out a superior snort.

“Very well. I accept!”

After Mikleo leads the boars back into the backstage, Rose and Sorey situate in the center of the stage. They stare at each other intensely for several seconds and then their fight begins. Rose’s dagger flies towards Sorey as fast as lighting but he can reflect them without barely blinking. Rose manages to catch them in the air and then a set of rapid movements and fast stabs follow.

People watch the performance holding their breaths, gasping when a dagger was thrown too close to one of Sorey’s vital points or when the boy’s sword aimed with too much precision towards Rose’s body, and when after a long intense minute the frenetic and dangerous dance finishes with Rose on her knees and Sorey’s sword under her chin, everyone applauds with enthusiasm.

“You’ve lost”, Mikleo says with satisfaction while Sorey helps Rose to stand while the audience kept applauding.

“Okaaay, I’ll join you. By the way, what’s the name of that Lord who destroyed your village?”

Mikleo and Sorey interchange a look and after nodding Mikleo whispers something in Rose’s ear that no one hears. Something that causes the girl to open her eyes widely.

“No way! That Lord is the one who I want to kill! Because of him, the man who raised me up was killed! But I’ve heard that he is a really powerful man. In fact, I want to go to the city because there is a rumor about a powerful Fire Seraph being there, and maybe we can convince her to help us”

“Then what are we waiting for?! Let’s go there right now!”

Mikleo claps his hands twice making the three boars enter the stage again. The three Windriders ride the animals as if they were horses and disappear towards the back stage once again at the same time that the lights of the stage turns off, while the applauses and laughter of the audience kept sounding.

    

 ********************************* � � � � � �

**Act II – Queen of Fire**

*********************************

 � � � � �

The lights turn on again and the only change in the stage is that there is a table in the middle with several candles on it together with a banner with the image of a burning flame hanging in the air.

Sorey, Mikleo and Rose enter the stage again.

“So this is the Church where the great Fire Seraph lives”, Mikleo comments looking around.

“According to the rumors yes, it is”, Rose says with a nod.

“But why is it completely empty? That’s weird”, Sorey says confused, approaching the table and extending the hand to examine one of the candles.

“Wait, Sorey, _don’t_!”

Rose’s warning comes too late. Suddenly, the banner begins to burn without warning, causing the audience to exhale surprised shouts.

“Who dares to invade my sanctuary?”

The audience applauds when Lailah ‘the Pure’ appears in the stage carrying something similar to a whip in one hand and a big origami crane in the other.

“Q-Queen of the Fire!”, Rose immediately bends down to make a reverence and Mikleo immediately does the same,  “we deeply apologize for the intrusion but we are here because we-”

“Wow, what an awesome whip!! Can I use it, can I?!”

“ _Sorey_!”

Lailah’s eyes open wide while Sorey steals the whip from her hand to examine it with a goofy curious smile. Rose and Mikleo snap a hand over their foreheads at the same time with a purposely loud sigh that causes everyone but especially the children to laugh.

“Y-You insolent! Return it to me right now”

Lailah does a delicate circular movement with her now free hand over the crane that she is sustaining with her other hand, causing the origami crane to begin to burn.

Because of the surprise, Sorey releases the whip and Lailah quickly recovers it. She then throws in the air the origami crane that flies for some seconds over the astonished Mikleo and Rose. With a firm movement, Lailah whips the origami crane making it explode in multiple fragments, while causing the own whip to end in fire.

The unexpected brief but intense show makes the audience remain quiet and shocked during some seconds before beginning to applaud with even more enthusiasm than before.

“Wow, it’s been incredible!!”, Sorey approaches Lailah again who this time immediately hides the whip behind her with a sulking expression so that Sorey couldn’t steal it again, the infantile action causing everyone to laugh, “you are really powerful! You definitely have to come with us. We need your help!”

“And why should I accompany you?”, Lailah asks, passing her fingers over the candles absent-mindedly to mysteriously lighting them one by one, effectively causing the audience to look at the inexplicable action with stupor.

“We need your help to beat certain person”, Mikleo says, “a Lord who has destroyed our lives”

Lailah frowns, suddenly in alert.

 “Wait, what’s the name of the Lord who you’ve come to destroy?”

This time, it’s Rose the one who approaches Lailah to whisper something in her ear.

“It’s not possible…”, Lailah looks at them with astonishment, “that’s the Lord who caused my fiancé to fall in an eternal dream!”

The audience begins to murmur with curiosity, since it was the second time that that mysterious Lord was mentioned. Also, when hearing Lailah’s words Eizen fixes his eyes on the woman with intensity, as if looking at her was all he needed to finally make his forgotten memory to come back to him.

“Then?! Are you going to join us?!”, Sorey asks with an expectant tone.

Lailah tips at her chin with her index finger, lost in her thoughts, before finally nodding.

“Alright, I will join you but before that you have to convince my friend to abandon the mountain”

“Great!”, Rose encloses an arm around Lailah’s shoulder’s way too amicably, her previous respect for the Fire Seraph completely forgotten, “we have another member in the group!”

“W-Wait! I still haven’t joined you!”

Lailah’s protests are ignored and the woman is dragged towards the backstage by Mikleo, Sorey and Rose.

� � � � � �

*********************************

**Act III – Earth Jumper**

    ********************************* � � � � � �

When the lights turn on again, there is a cylindrical structure covered with a clothing and a swing hanging in the air in the middle of the stage. Edna is sitting in the last one, giving her back to the audience so that the only thing people can see is her opened umbrella.

Sorey, Mikleo, Rose and Lailah enter the stage in that order.

“Well then”, Sorey looks around hurriedly, “who is that person that we have to convince to join us?”

“Yes, I don’t see anyone around here”, Rose says crossing her arms, purposely avoiding to look up.

“Queen of the Fire, are you sure that this is the place?”, Mikleo asks, joining his friends in the apparently difficult search.

Several children in the stands begin to murmur to themselves ‘ _She’s up there_ ’ in a shy tone.

“For goodness sake”, Lailah turns at that moment to the crowd and signals at her simple companions that keep looking around with funny confused faces, “can someone tell them where the Earth Jumper is?”

Some children murmur with hesitation.

“They can’t hear you if you speak so low”, Lailah protests with a reproachful tone before smiling widely, “come on! Where the Earth Jumper is?!”

This time, all the children in the stage shout a loug ‘ _UP THERE_!’ and begin to laugh when Sorey, Mikleo and Rose jump startled.

“Tsk, what’s all that noise? I was trying to sleep”

Edna unfolds her umbrella and with a fluid movement she lets herself fall back until she is hanging upside down, her legs sustaining her in the swing and one of her hands keeping her skirt in place.

The audience exhales scared shots when seeing Edna do that but the moment the girl begins to swing back and forward with complete naturalness everyone relax.

“Careful up there!”, Mikleo exclaims, “you could fall at any momen-”

Without letting Mikleo complete the sentence Edna suddenly throws the umbrella in the air and swings herself with force to have enough impulse to release the swing and give a cartwheel in the air.

While Edna falls, Mikleo and Sorey situate rapidly under her and caught yhr girl in the air in a princess position at the exact time that she recovers her umbrella.

The audience that had been holding their breathing since the moment Edna had fallen from the swing begins to applaud loudly.

“Jeez, be careful!”, Rose exclaims, “you could have hurt yourself”

“Tsk, don’t make me laugh”, Edna says standing in the floor, “this is nothing for an Earth Jumper like me. And now…”, Edna turns to look at Lailah, “…can you explain me why have you brought these people to me?”

“Because we need your help to destroy a Lord that ruined our lives”, Mikleo explains.

Edna grabs her umbrella with force.

 “Wait, what’s the name of the Lord who you’ve come to destroy?”

This time it’s Lailah the one who approaches Edna to whisper something in her ear. The murmurs of frustration of the people sound louder than before. In fact, a voice among the crowd exhales a slight exasperated: ‘ _Who the hell is that Lord_?!’.

“No…”, Edna looks at Lailah with widened eyes, “it was that Lord’s fault that my brother ended in that state!”

Lailah nods

“Yes, he is. For that reason I think we should join these humans to destroy that man”

Edna looks at Sorey, Mikleo and Rose.

“But they are simply humans. What can they do?”

Lailah extracts from somewhere inside her dress a little origami crane.

“That’s what we are going to discover right now”

“Oh…”, Rose says in an understanding tone when Lailah situates next to Edna, “so you want a fight to know if we are worthy. Hah! Very well”, Rose extracts both of her knives, “I accept the challenge!”

Sorey smiles with confidence, grabbing his sword.

“This sounds like fun”

Mikleo sighs and grabs his staff, adopting a fighting stance as well.

“If there isn’t any other way…”

And then the fight begins. At first is an all-against-all battle in which everyone makes use of their respective skills. Rose throws daggers at Lailah, who makes use of her burning cranes to divert the trajectories of the weapons, and Sorey and Mikleo attack Edna at the same time while the girl avoids easily all their attacks by crouching, jumping and even escalating at incredible speed the structure in the middle of the stage to recover her previous advantage in the swing.

When that happens, Rose begins to attack Edna with her daggers while Mikleo and Sorey try to corner Lailah, who by then has several cranes dancing around her, creating a fire protection. Edna avoids Rose’s daggers by swaying in the swing with different postures that are more and more difficult (sitting, standing, upside down….).

However, eventually one of the daggers manages to put Edna off of balance. When seeing the Earth Jumper about to fall, Mikleo stops attacking Lailah and whistles, making a couple of dodos appear carrying a wide square net.

Sorey, Mikleo, Lailah and Rose immediately grab a corner of the net just when Edna was falling, preventing the girl from hitting the floor for second time in the show.

“Phew. That was close”, Sorey exclaims over the loud applauses.

“Are you hurt, Earth Jumper?”, Lailah asks with worry.

“I’m fine but for goodness sake make these dodos stop attacking me!”

Everyone laughs when seeing one of the dodos messing with Edna’s hair playfully while the other has decided that Edna’s lap was a good place to rest.

With Mikleo and Sorey’s help the dodos stop teasing Edna and the girl stands up again.

“Tsk, I have to admit that you three are really impressive making me fall like that, so I’ll join you”

“And I’ll join you too”, Lailah says with a smile, “since you have managed to convince her”

Sorey, Mikleo and Rose exclaim respective loud ‘ _Hoorays!’_.

“Great! Then we are already enough to beat that Lor-”

“ _Wow! I can’t believe my eyes_!”

At that moment, a masculine voice that causes almost all the girls (and also some boys) of the big top begin to squeak with emotion.

Lailah and Edna interchange a mortified glance and speak at the same time.

“Don’t tell me that _he_ is…”

At that moment a tearing sound invades the place and the clothing that was covering the structure on which Edna has climbed before breaks, allowing Zaveid to exit from it with his irresistible nonchalance.

“…here”, Edna and Lailah complete snapping a hand against their respective foreheads while Zaveid responds to the cheers of the audience waving his hands towards them.

“Who is this man?”, Mikleo asks, looking at Zaveid reproachfully when seeing the man beginning to throw kisses towards the crowd that kept applauding.

“An idiot”, Edna spats simply.

“He is Zaveid”, Lailah explains with a resigned tone, “a Wind Singer whose obsession for girls is annoying at the very least”

“Oh, don’t be shy, my dear Queen of the Fire, my beloved Earth Jumper”, the girls tense up when Zaveid situates behind her and encloses his arms around their respective waists, “come on, admit that you have missed me at least a bi… _ARGH_! W-Why the hell this dodo is attacking me?!”

 Everyone begins to laugh when one of the dodos begins to peach Zaveid’s ass repeatedly, causing Zaveid to stop bothering the girls to hide behind Rose.

“Jeez, those women are difficult to treat…”, Zaveid exclaims while the spectators (and specially the children) keep laughing, “so what about you, young Lady?”, Zaveid offers Rose his best seductive smile and hugs her from behind, “I’m sure that you are able to appreciate a handsome man when you have in front of your ey-”

Zaveid shuts up when suddenly finding Rose’s dagger just under his chin.

“Yeah, of course I appreciate it”, Rose says with a cheery tone, “but I don’t see anyone as you describe around here so can you please release me?”

“O-Of course!”

Zaveid separates from Rose so abruptly that he accidentally hits the other dodo that immediately begins to run after him, the ridiculous sight making the audience laugh once again.

“Okay, let’s proceed”, Edna says, clearly indicating the she didn’t want to waste more time with the newcomer.

“Oi! Don’t go yet!”, Zaveid exclaims, when the girls and Mikleo begin to walk towards the backstage ignoring him.

“Sorry, Zaveid”, Sorey says with an apologetic smile, “but we need help to find and beat-”

“-the Lord that destroyed your lives?”

Everyone stops in his tracks when hearing Zaveid’s comment. They turn around to look at the man. By then the dodo has finally calmed down and was lying on the floor with the other dodo.

“So you were listening to our conversation”, Lailah says with a reproachful tone.

Zaveid smiles, not feeling bothered in the least for the accusation.

“You know that the Wind Singers have an extremely sharp ear. I was just sleeping and I wasn’t planning to overhear but when I heard that you were after a Lord…”, Zaveid’s tone become serious, “…I just got curious to know who that man was. So could you say me that man’s name?”

After a brief pause, Edna approaches Zaveid to whisper something in his ear.

“Heh. As I’ve thought”, Zaveid said with a sad smile, “I have a pending debt with that bastard so you are lucky, guys”, Zaveid hooks his arms around Sorey and Mikleo’s shoulders, “you have just gained a new member in your group”

“Hey, wait a minute there”, Rose crosses her arms with a sulking expression, “we have just been asked to show our skills, so you should do the same if you want to join us”

“Okay, sounds fair”, with a smile Zaveid extracts his pendulums from the back of his pockets, “what about a fight? I’ll be kind and I’ll let you all attack me at the same time”

Rose snorts and extracts her daggers.

“Don’t underestimate Deathly Rose, you Casanova”, Rose settles into position, “I have managed to make the great Earth Jumper fall so you won’t suppose any proble-”

In the blink of an eye, Zaveid throws his pendulums towards Rose and suddenly the girl finds herself tied up when the string warps around her tightly.

With a shout, Rose swings back and forward a couple of times funnily before finally ending falling backwards. Fortunately, Sorey and Mikleo are there to catch her.

“Aaaand beaten in less than five seconds”, Zaveid says with a teasing smile while applauses and laughs resound, “do you think it’s enough to let me join, my lady?”

“Jeez! Okay, okay, I admit that you’ve been rather impressive”, Rose says in a sulking way.

“Yes, you haven’t given time to warn you that despite his vulgar behavior Zaveid is quite skilled with his pendulums”, Lailah admits reluctantly while Edna simply clicks her tongue, not wanting to praise the Wind Singer.

“Okay, people!”, Zaveid exclaims happily, “now that we all have become friends follow me!”

“Wait”, Mikleo signals in the opposite direction where Zaveid was going, “the city is around there”

“Yeah, I know, but before going to the city…”, Zaveid smiles, “…we have to meet the last member of our group”

� � � � � �

*******************************************

**Act IV – The Wind Singers reunion**

     ******************************************* � � � � � �

The lights turn on again. Now there is nothing in the stage but the structure of the tightrope show, and standing just in the middle of it there Dezel is. People applaud when Dezel begins to play with his pendulums absentmindedly, rotating them over his head and around his own body as if it was the most natural thing to do.

At that moment loud steps sound in the place, causing Dezel to immediately stop his movements with his pendulums just when everyone enters the stage again.

“Hehe. I knew I would find you here”

When hearing Zaveid’s triumphant tone Dezel adopts an annoyed posture over the rope with his arms crossed.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“So mean”, Zaveid says with a fake hurt tone, “that’s not the way to welcome your best friend”

Dezel clicks his tongue.

“If you were my best friend you would leave me alone as I’ve asked you to do, so you can go back the way you came because my answer hasn’t changed: I’m not joining you”

“Wait!”

Dezel stops his attempt of walking towards the opposite pillar when hearing Sorey’s voice.

“Haven’t you come alone?”, Dezel asks Zaveid, but it’s Sorey the one who talks again.

“Hi there. My name is Sorey, this is my childhood friend Mikleo, this is Rose the Assassin, this is the Queen of the Fire and this is the Earth Jumper and we have just met Zaveid who wants to take revenge on the same Lord that destroyed our village and that killed the man who raised Rose and that put the Queen of the Fire’s fiancé in an eternal dream and that left the Earth Jumper’s brother in a really bad state so would you join us to help us?”

Everyone laughs when Sorey takes a long deep breath after giving such a long speech.

After a couple of seconds, Dezel speaks.

“What?”

The audience laughs even harder when hearing Dezel’s cutting question.

“Okay, what this idiot is trying to say is…”, Edna intervenes, hitting Sorey’s head with her umbrella in the process, “…that we need all the help we can obtain to beat that Lord. So will you join us?”

“But I still don’t understand what Zaveid and I will have to do with this. Who is that Lord?”

When Dezel asks that, everyone in the public tenses while waiting for the answer.

“That Lord is the one who did _that_ to you”

A collective frustrated murmur invaded the big top when once again the identity of the Lord isn’t revealed.

“I see”, Dezel exhales an empty laugh, “well, in that case I wish you luck. You are going to need it”

“Then does that mean that you don’t want to help us…umh…”, Rose looks at Dezel with curiosity, “what your name was?”

“Dezel”, Zaveid answers instead, “his name is Dezel and he is the best Wind Singer around here”

“You mean _was_ ”, Dezel replies bitterly, “I _was_ one of the best Wind Singers but not anymore. I haven’t practiced with my pendulums since _that_ happened ever once”

“ _That’s a lie!_ ”

Everyone chuckles when suddenly a little girl’s voice sounded in the big top.

“H-Hey! Who’s said that?!”

Dezel’s sulking tone encourages more children to join the first girl and in a matter of seconds the big top is full with several children’s voices saying things such as: “ _He is lying_ ”, “ _He was practicing just now_ ”, “ _He was using his pendulums_ ”.

“Well, well, well…”, Zaveid smiles while beginning to climb the metallic pillar that leads to the top of the tightrope, “it seems that you haven’t said all the truth”

“Zaveid, what are you going to do?”, Lailah inquires when the man climbs to the top.

“Isn’t it obvious, my dear?”, Zaveid extracts his pendulums once again and begins to move them at the same time, mimicking Dezel’s previous movements, “I’m going to have a little fight with this stubborn Wind Singer”

“What?! But it’s dangerous fighting up there!”, Mikleo exclaims.

“Don’t worry, kid”, Zaveid sets a foot on the tightrope, “I know what I’m doing”

“Don’t come any closer”, Dezel warns, going backwards while Zaveid walks forward.

“I’m going to attack you, Dezel”, Zaveid says nstead, adopting his fighting stance, “and I’m not going to hold back so you better extract your pendulums”

“I’ve already told you that it’s been a while since the last time I-”

At that moment Zaveid throws the pendulum against Dezel, the same way he had done before against Rose. However, this time Dezel immediately moves his body rapidly to avoid it at the same time that he extracts his own pendulums in order to counterattack, forcing Zaveid to crouch in the tightrope to avoid being hit.

“Hah”, Zaveid says while the audience begins to applaud for the brief but intense interchange of attacks, “I knew you have been practicing. Listen, what about making a deal? If I win, you’ll join us. And if you win, I’ll do whatever thing you want”

“Tsk”, Dezel adopts his fighting stance as well, “then be prepared to leave”

And then the fight begins. Both Wind Seraphs (or in this case, Wind Singers) don’t hold back in attacking each other with their pendulums, at first simply throwing them horizontally but as the time passes the movements become more complicated.

Dezel begins to attack Zaveid legs, forcing the old Wind Singer to change his weight from one leg to another in a rapid sequence. Zaveid also manages at some point to enclose his pendulum around Dezel’s waist, but this one manages to avoid the attack of the other pendulum while spinning to unwind the string around his body.

During the three minutes that the show lasts, the audience doesn’t dare to blink even once, holding his breath for the frenetic dance that is taking place at such a big height. And when eventually Dezel manages to tangle Zaveid’s wrists together, stopping him from keeping using his pendulums, the crowd begins to cheer them up while applauding with emotion.

“Well, you’ve won, Dezel-chan”

The public is so busy applauding that they don’t notice the little mistake that Zaveid makes when calling Dezel with that appellative, neither the tender smile that Dezel hurries to hide while releasing Zaveid.

“Alright, as I’ve promised I’ll do whatever you want”, Zaveid begins to climb down towards the stage, “that it would be to leave you alone I suppose”

Just when Zaveid is about to join the rest to leave Dezel speaks.

“Wait”, Dezel crosses his arms and after a moment of silence he speaks, “you really think that you can beat that man?”

This time it’s not Zaveid the one who answers but everyone at the same time.

“Of course we will!”, everyone says.

“So…”, Zaveid smiled, “…are you sure you don’t want to join us?”

Dezel lets out a deep breath and suddenly lets himself fall backwards. The audience exhales shocked shouts but at that moment the mat that was hidden in the floor inflates and Dezel lands on it safe and sound.

“Wow! I didn’t know that Wind Singers could make mats appear!”

Rose’s comment makes everyone laugh, including the Windriders because that line wasn’t in the script.

“That’s a power that I discovered recently”, Dezel answers with irony before coming back to his character, “okay, I’ll join you, but just until beating that Lord”

“That’s great!”, Sorey says happily, “but just out of curiosity what that Lord did to you?”

“Yes, I would like to know it too”, Lailah adds, “at the end Zaveid didn’t tell us anything”

There is a brief pause after which Dezel removes his hat in order to push his hair back. And then, a surprised murmur falls in the room when Dezel shows his bright grey eyes to the audience.

“Because of him, I ended blind”

Dezel’s simple answer causes the murmurs to increase, as if people weren’t sure if Dezel’s statement was part of the show or not.  And concretely, certain nobleman of the first line stares at Dezel in disbelief, slowly curling his hands into fists.

“And you can fight like that even while being blind? Jeez, you sure are awesome!”

“Yes, and quite an idiot for having waited so much to use your pendulums like that”

Again, a smile is about to escape Dezel when Rose and Edna add those two extra lines to the show.

“Yep, he is an idiot but a really good one”, Zaveid encloses an arm around Dezel’s shoulders affectionately and smiles, “and now that we have our last member what about paying a visit to that Lord?”

This time, not just the Windriders but also the audience exclaim a loud ‘ _YES_!”

 

      ******************************** � � � � � �

**Act V – A same desire**

  ******************************** �

The lights turn on again but this time the illumination that they offer is not as bright as in the previous acts. A murmur half surprise and half confusion invades the audience when seeing the stage covered with several animals (boars, wolves, dodos, lakehorses) lying on the ground, apparently dead.

The Windriders give the people several seconds to look at the fallen animals before entering the stage.

“So these are the Lord’s domains”, Mikleo whispers with a sad tone.

“Yes, without any doubt”, Lailah crouches in the floor to settle a hand tenderly over a wolf and the animal doesn’t react, “this is the sight that welcomes everyone that goes near this man”

“Our village ended this way as well”, Sorey says with frustration, “the animals ended dead and the ones who were alive were turned into monsters”

“That bastard”, Rose crouches next to Lailah, this time to pet an immobile dodo, “he will pay for what he’d done”

At that moment, a soft sound similar to a sob is heard in the stage.

“Have you heard that? It’s coming from there”

Dezel signals the place when one of the fallen lakehorses is and Edna approaches it. She lets out a surprised gasp and kneels on the floor to grab something that was hiding behind the animal.

Everyone in the public exhale a collective ‘ _Ooooh’_ when seeing that Edna is sustaining in her arms a baby lakehorse that is barely moving as well.

“Is he alive?”, Zaveid asks while everyone approaches the girl.

“Barely”, Edna answers, her face showing deep concern, “and if we don’t do something fast, he will die”

A nervous murmur begins to sound in the big top together with several ‘ _Mommy, Daddy, is the lakehorse going to be okay_?’ coming from most part of the youngest children.

“Maybe there is a way”, Lailah says suddenly, “but it’s not sure that it can work”

“What is it?”, everyone says at the same time.

“There is an ancient spell that says that if eight humans join hands while asking for the same, the shared desire will become true”

“Then we just have to find one more person to save him!”, Sorey exclaims, but Lailah shakes his head.

“The only humans here are you, Mikleo and Rose. We still need another five”

“But who?”, Dezel inquires, “we are alone now. There is no one around here who can help us in time!”

Suddenly Rose stands up, her expression determined.

“No. There are more humans here that can help us”

With firm steps, Rose approaches the center of the stage.

“Is there anyone in the public who wants to help us?”

“Please, we need your help or the lakehorse will die”, Mikleo says, situating next to Rose.

“And if we want that the spell is effective we need four girls and four boys, so we need three more girls and two more boys”, Lailah explains.

A tense silence falls and for a moment it seems as if the Windrider’s petition was going to be ignored.

However, just at that moment a familiar little girl with black curly hair combed in two ponytails abandons her seat and approaches the stage without hesitation, causing Katie in the grades to let out a loud ‘ _That’s my girl_!’ that provokes several amused laughers.

“A pleasure to meet you again, Liara-chan”

Zaveid’s affectionate comment causes Katie’s daughter to chuckle before approaching Edna.

“Thanks, Liara”, Rose says ruffling the girl’s hair when she passes by, “come on! We still need two more girls!”

“Can I go even if I’m not a girl anymore?”, a rather old woman asks suddenly.

“Of course you can, my lady”, Zaveid suddenly leaves the stage to approach the grades where the old woman is sitting, “I will even accompany you to the stage like the gentleman I am”

The old woman chuckles with amusement before gladly accepting Zaveid’s hand.

“Well, in that case I’ll go too”, Sorey and Mikleo smile widely when Zenrus is the one who speaks next, “and this young man who is here with me is willing to help too”

Lailah and Edna stare in disbelief at Eizen following Zenrus as well towards the stage, and when the blond man fixes his turquoise eyes in Lailah, she momentarily forgets her character to look back at him intensely.

“Wow, it seems that someone here has fallen for the Queen of Fire”

Zaveid’s teasing comment causes not just the audience but also Eizen to laugh, this one with certain embarrassment, and seeing that opened expression on his friend’s face after such a long time causes all the Windriders to feel extremely happy.

“And who wouldn’t?”

Eizen’s unexpected but sincere reply causes Lailah to blush intensely while the crowd chuckles again.

“Well, you’ll have plenty of time to talk to her when this finishes”, Rose says with a wide smile while Eizen situates next to Edna, who automatically offers him an affectionate look, “okay, we have enough men already but we need one more woman so come on! Who volunteers?”

By now the previous nervousness of appearing on stage has vanished and several women raise their arms in order to ask to go to the stage.

However, just at that moment a familiar female voice speaks, causing everyone to open their mouths in astonishment.  

“I volunteer”, Alisha says with a clear firm voice, her smile directed to everyone but specially to the redhead performer whose jaw at that moment seemed about to hit the floor, “can I?”

“O-Of course, Alic…Princess Alisha. It will be an honor”, Rose says, unable to prevent a light ironic tone that doesn’t go unnoticed by Alisha because she smiles playfully.

“Al right, we have enough people already”, Lailah says when Alisha is in the stage as well, “now, all the humans have to situate around Edna and join hands”

Everyone does as Lailah says and at the end a circle composed by Sorey, Mikleo, Zenrus, Eizen, Liara, the old woman, Alisha and Rose is formed around Edna.

“Very well. And now, finally….”, Lailah’s voice turns solemn, “…all of you close your eyes and concentrate. You all have to desire at the same time that the lakehorse survives or this won’t work”

“And the rest of the audience”, Dezel adds approaching the stage, “you have to concentrate as well, because sometimes the only way to achieve something is to work together”

“Come on, people”, Zaveid says while forming a line in the stage with Lailah and Dezel, also joining hands with them, “we need your help if we want to stop that devil Lord’s advances”

When finishing talking, the front line of the Windriders close their eyes as well, and immediately the rest of the audience do the same (with the exception of certain noblemen who is watching the show with a disgusted and angry expression on his face), and then, after several seconds, a small whinny is heard.

“Everyone…look!”

Edna’s voice makes everyone open their eyes at the same time, and a collective murmur of happiness invades the place when seeing that the lakehorse is safe and sound and extremely lively, since he didn’t lose time in beginning to (again) play with Edna’s hair.

“We have saved him”, Liara says with a tiny but happy voice.

“No”, Mikleo says suddenly, releasing Sorey’s hand to grab his staff that he had left on the ground when forming the circle, “you have saved _them_ ”

Mikleo raises his staff and at that moment all the animals that had been lying on the ground stands up, coming back to life, and that’s the moment in which the until then happy murmurs turn into loud cheers and shouts of joy.

“Oh my…”, the old woman says in awe when a wolf approaches her and begins to nudge his head amicably against her hand, “oh my, I can’t believe my eyes…”

Liara begins to laugh when the baby lakehorse leaves Edna’s side and manages to jump at the little girl’s shoulders, attracted to her curly hair. A rather big boar seems to like Zenrus quite a lot because he was trying to make the old man sit on his back. A dodo, meanwhile, was poking at Eizen’s sides playfully, causing the blonde young man to chuckle because he was rather ticklish. And about Alisha, a lakehorse had taken a liking to her big pamela hat and was trying to take it, causing Alisha to chuckle with her crystalline voice while patting at the same time other of the lakehorses that was purring against her in a loving way.

“And with this miracle...”, by now the applauses are so loud that Rose is forced to literally shout, “…the Windriders show finishes tonight, with the promise that really soon the Lord’s identity will be revealed! Thanks a lot for all your support!!”

The applauses and cheers continue for another whole full minute, and they don’t vanish even when the lights turn off and the Windriders abandon the stage looking almost as happy as the audience that they are leaving behind.

� � � � � �

***************************** � � � � � �**

**END OF THE SHOW**

�� � �  � *************************� � �**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And finally, in the next chapter the winner will be announced :) 
> 
> I’ll try to update the next chapter (and probably the Epilogue too) as soon as I can so to the ones who have reached this point of the fic don’t abandon it now that the end is near! ^^


	16. The best circus

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And finally the last chapter is out :) Sorry for the wait! Real life reached me and it has taken me more than I would like to write it -.- Hope you enjoy it!

After the Windriders left the stage and the applauses finally calmed down, the King announced that he and Princess Alisha would take some minutes to deliberate before announcing the result of the competition.

During that time the Windriders and the Calamatiy circus remained in the backstage. Dezel felt the nervousness in the ambience turn gradually heavier as the minutes passed by. Even Zaveid, who was always the one in keeping the most positive attitude, was leaning against the wall of the backstage next to him with all his body in tension.

After some minutes of overwhelming silence, Dezel grabbed one of Zaveid’s hands. The contact made him relax a little instantly. Zaveid looked at Dezel with tenderness and approached Dezel’s hand to his mouth to deposit a soft kiss on his palm. Dezel offered Zaveid a brief smile and took a deep breath. He knew that there was nothing more than they could do at that moment. They had given their all during the show and had played all their cards, so now they just had to wait and hope that their effort will bear fruits.

“Jeez, before the show I was really sure that we were going to win but right now I’m not that sure anymore!”, Rose broke the silence at some point, patting the floor repeatedly with nervousness.

“Calm down, Rose-san”, Lailah used a reassuring tone but she was grabbing her own delicate hands with force, “we have done everything that was in our hands, so now we just have to wait”

“Yes, but that’s the worst part”, Edna snapped.

“Yeah, waiting is always boring”, Sorey admitted, but he was smiling when talking next, “but I know that we are going to win”

“How can you be so sure of that?”, Dezel asked, impressed against his will for the boy’s confidence.

“Because gramps always says that good things are in store for people who really deserves them”, Sorey said simply, “and after how hard we’ve worked, and after all what you have been through because of Hedalf, we deserve to win”

A silence fell in the group after hearing Sorey, and it was Zaveid the one who eventually broke it by exhaling a laugh.

“You really believe that, right kid?”

“Yes, _we_ really believe that”, Mikleo’s sudden words caused everyone to look at him with surprise, “I also feel that, one way or the other, we are going to win tonight”, Mikleo cleared his throat and blushed with a little of embarrassment, “and I know that I tend to be way more logical but sometimes you just know things that logic can’t just explain, don’t you think?”

Everyone laughed when Mikleo ended the sentence with an abrupt tone, and Dezel could feel how everyone’s tension suddenly decreased.

“Damn, look at them”, Zaveid approached Sorey and Mikleo and enclosed his respective arms around the boys’ necks, “the most newbies in the circus are given us a lesson about what the Windrider’s spirit should be”

“It’s true. Lafarga used to be like that as well”, Dezel commented with a hint of a nostalgic smile, “no matter how complicated the situation was, he always believed that everything was going to be okay”

“And we always managed to make it through”, Rose looked at Lailah teasingly, “I remember Lailah getting all hysterical with Lafarga for his optimism”

“Yes, I used to be quite a logic person back then too”, Lailah admitted with a giggle, “but Mikleo-san is right: there are moments in which feelings are more important than logic, and this is one of those moments” 

“Tsk, I just say that you all better be right about winning. I almost lose my hair because of that crazy Lakehorse so I hope that my suffering hasn’t been for nothing”

Edna’s sulking comment helped to lighten the mood definitely, so when the King announced some minutes later that both circus could step on the stage again, the Windriders walked on it with smiles on their faces, which caused Hedalf to look at them with a hint of annoyance in his cruel eyes.

The Windriders dedicated Hedalf a glance full of conviction before taking their place next to him, all of them at the same level on the contrary than Symonne and Hedalf’s performers, to whom the man had ordered to remain a couple of steps behind him.

After the new applauses calmed down, the King stood up from his seat and looked at the performers with an amicable smile.

“First of all, I have to show my gratitude for offering us such good shows. It is evident all the work that you have dedicated to do them and no matter who the winner is, you should feel proud of that…”

“Rose-chan, your father in law could be more direct, you know?”

Rose blushed when Zaveid whispered that, causing everyone to chuckle softly. The girl ‘glared’ at the older Wind Seraph but this one just winked charmingly at her, making her smile as well with resignation.

The King kept rambling for a couple of more minutes until finally he allowed Princess Alisha to take the floor.

 _Well, the moment has come_ , Dezel thought to himself when Alisha stood up and situated next to her father.

“Everyone, thank you very much for your patient wait”, Alisha’s clear voice resounded in the now completely silent place, “as my father, the King, has said both circus have really impressed us”, Alisha turned her pure green eyes towards Hedalf, “on the one hand, I think that the Calamity Circus has made us live the whole performance vividly. At least in my case, I was unable to avert my eyes from the stage for even one second. The performers’ skills while dealing with the obvious dangerous animals that they have managed to catch have been simply extraordinaire. I cannot imagine how much time and dedication they have put on the training to be able to show us what they have showed us tonight. They really deserve a recognition for all their good work”

Alisha made a pause, allowing people applaud. Hedalf smiled with conviction and raised an arm towards the audience, obviously enjoying the applauses.

“On the other hand…”, Alisha’s voice made the applauses cease once again, “the Windriders circus’ performance, though maybe has not been as stunning, has allowed me to enjoy like never before. The way all the performers were able to combine their respective abilities in such an appealing way, the obvious chemistry and camaraderie that they all shared, and the story they have managed to tell us through all the show…”, Alisha smiled brightly, “…all of that has touched me deeply. While watching them, I was feeling like a little girl who was able to laugh and have fun without having to worry for anything else, and I am really grateful for that. I really needed it”

When the applauses exploded again all the Windriders made an inclination at the same time towards Alisha, feeling immensely happy for the princess’ honest words.

“God, how much I love her…”, Rose couldn’t help to exhale with a touched tone while they were still inclined, making the Windriders chuckle again.

“So now, finally, it is time to decide the winner. However, there has been a little change of plans. Instead of deciding myself who the winner is…”, Alisha extended her arms towards the audience, “…I will let you vote the circus you think is the best”

Dezel’s mouth fell completely opened when hearing that. Also, all the Windriders and Hedalf himself looked at Alisha with stupor while the audience began to murmur with confusion and surprise.

“I know that theoretically I was going to be the judge”, Alisha continued, talking a little louder to be heard over the collective murmur, “However, after discussing the matter with my father we have reached the conclusion that it would not be fair. After all, all of you have watched both performances as well, and I think you also deserve to be able to decide which performance you have enjoyed the most. Of course, so that you can vote at ease without being influenced by my father, myself or even the circus performers, all the votes will be anonymous. That way…”, Alisha offers Hedalf an innocent smile, “…you would be able to vote for whichever circus you want, without being afraid of the consequences of voting against a particular circus.”

Dezel had to suppress a smile. He regretted not be able to see Hedalf’s expression at that moment because it was surely one of rage.

“Damn Alice, she didn’t tell me that she planned to do that!”, Rose exclaimed, half-closing her eyes at the princess who just winked subtly at her as a response.

“I have to admit that it’s a very fair way of deciding the winner”, Lailah said with a smile.

“Yeah, but there were a lot of people who enjoyed the Calamity Circus show”, Edna replied with a little of concern.

“That’s true, but there were a lot that enjoyed ours as well”, Sorey replied.

“I just hope they don’t vote him out of fear”, Mikleo said a little nervously.

“They won’t”, Dezel said with conviction, “by making the vote anonymous the princess is assuring that people who could feel intimidated because of Hedalf can vote freely”

“Yep, our future queen is really clever”, Zaveid smiled widely, “and thanks to that, we are going to kick that old man’s ass for sure”

Zaveid said that loud enough so that Hedalf could hear it, and even if the man didn’t say anything the glance that he casted to the group was full of disdain.

At that moment Alisha, who had been talking with one of her knights while the Windriders talked between themselves, spoke towards the audience again.

“I have just been informed that a total of 2475 people have come to see the shows. Right now, several knights will provide you with pieces of paper so that you can vote for the best circus. If you support the Calamity Circus, you have to write a ‘C’ on paper. If you support the Windriders, you have to write a ‘W’.  If someone does not know which one is better, simply leave the paper blank. After we gather all the votes, we will count them and show the results. The circus with more votes will be the winner. I know that it is a slow process but again, I think that it is the fairest way to do it. Make sure _not_ to write your names on the vote, please. Remember that it has to be anonymous”

“May I have some words with the audience, my dear Princess?”, Hedalf asked suddenly, but the Princess shook her head, her expression polite but firm.

“My apologies, Lord Hedalf, but we do not have more time to waste. You have already tell the audience all you needed to say with your show, so please wait until the end of the voting to speak”

Hedalf gritted his teeth but inclined his head obediently. This time Dezel couldn’t suppress a satisfied smile. Probably Hedalf had planned to gain some votes by subtly _suggesting_ the audience to vote for him, but Alisha had seen through him and hadn’t let him do so.

At that moment several Ladylake knights began to provide the audience with papers. The whole process of writing the votes and gathering them afterwards took around fifteen minutes. After that, the knights brought all the votes to Alisha again in two big baskets.

“Very well, now I proceed to count them”, a generalized murmur invaded the room when hearing Alisha’s words, but the girl simply smiled, “I suppose that you are thinking that this is not something that a future queen would do, but I think that I am the most innocent hand around here. After all, I had the chance to vote for the circus I liked the most and decided not do it, so there is no need for me to tamper with the result now”

Dezel could almost hear the way that bastard’s teeth gritted again.

“What’s wrong, Lord Hedalf?”, he couldn’t help to ask with a fake innocent tone, “are you maybe nervous for what the result is going to be?”

Lord Hedalf exhaled a short laugh before speaking with his characteristic condescending tone.

“Of course not, young Wind Seraph. The princess herself has said before that your show wasn’t as stunning as mine, and I’m sure most part of the people think that way”

“Well, we’ll see about that”, Zaveid intervened, a defiant smile on his face, “but for being as sure as you claim you are sweating quite a lot, Hedalf-chan”

The man offered the older Wind Seraph a poisonous glare before turning his look again towards the princess. Meanwhile, Symonne remained behind Hedalf, her expression imperturbable as always, and the only thing that betrayed her nervousness was the way she was sustaining a wrinkled piece of paper between her lightly trembling hands.

“I apologize in advance”, Alisha said then, “the process is surely going to take us more than an hour so…”

“Oh, don’t worry about that”, suddenly Zaveid extracted his pendulums and after separating from the group a little he began to manipulate them, “while you count the votes I’ll make sure to entertain the audience with my charm”

“Hey, great idea!”, Rose approved while the audience began to applaud effusively, “come on Sorey: let’s do the show that we have been practicing lately. It’s not perfect yet but that way we’ll train too!”

“Hai, Ma’am”, Sorey say adopting a military gesture before following the enthusiastic redhead to another side of the big top.

“We aren’t going to be less, Meebo”, Edna suddenly grabbed Mikleo’s wrist and began to run after Rose and Sorey while the boy exhaled babbling excuses of not having practiced enough yet.

“Well, I think that I’m going to borrow some more papers and create some extra origamis cranes”, Lailah announced with a soft chuckle while approaching Alisha, who was looking at the Windriders with a expression full of affection and gratitude.

Dezel hid a smile when clearly hearing the audience murmur an expectant: ‘ _And the other Wind Seraph is going to perform as well_?’, so with a purposely casual gesture he extracts his pendulums and begins to approach Zaveid while moving them, making the audience begin to applaud even more.

“Do you mind if I join your show, Zaveid of the ‘Promise’?”, he asked jokingly, causing Zaveid to laugh.

“Of course not, Dezel ‘of the Beautiful Grey Eyes’”

Dezel clicked his tongue when hearing the invented alias (that he likes more than he is disposed to admit) before beginning his combined show with the smirking older Wind Seraph.

* * *

The Windriders had been entertaining the audience for almost an hour and half when Alisha finally announced that the votes had been counted.

At that moment, the Windriders formed again a line next to Hedalf and in front of the table where Alisha had been counting the votes. They were all extremely tired and sweating, but the extenuating exercise had allowed them not to focus on the possible results, thing that everyone had thanked.

“Very well”, Alisha stood up at that moment and signaled the table in front of her, where three piles of papers of different heights were positioned in an extremely orderly way, “the recount of votes has been made. One of the piles corresponds to the abstentions. The other two, correspond to the votes of the two circus”

Dezel regretted not being able to see Alisha’s expression, but the tension that he felt again in his friends indicated him that the princess’ expression was quite imperturbable.

“How are the piles?”, Dezel whispered. Zaveid was the one in answering.

“The first is rather small, the second quite normal and the last is quite big”

Dezel gulped. There were several possibilities. Obviously, the best case scenario was that the biggest pile was theirs and any of the others was Hedalf’s, or that the normal pile was theirs and the smallest was Hedalf’s. But damn, there was also the possibility that the biggest was Hedalf’s and any of the rest was theirs.

Dezel knew it was stupid trying to guess the answer when Alisha was about to announce the result, but he couldn’t help it. He felt his heart about to abandon his chest now that finally the moment of truth was near.

“The smallest one, with 223 votes, corresponds to the abstentions. The two remaining piles are of 725 votes and 1246 votes”

Dezel took a deep breath. Hedalf had been right when saying that Alisha had criticized that their show wasn’t as stunning, but it was true that people had been really happy while watching the Windriders perform. However, what if people, at the end, kept being afraid of Hedalf and had voted him out of fear? Or what if people had voted Hedalf simply because they thought that his show was the best? What if they had ended doing a too childish performance like Hedalf had suggested? What if…?

“Dezel”, the younger Wind Seraph’s negative feelings disappeared at once when Zaveid whispered his name with that tender tone that he just used when talking to him, “the only thing that matters now is that we have managed to go this far together, overcoming all the obstacles that Hedalf has been putting us”, Dezel felt a lump forming on his throat when Zaveid grabbed his hand before saying the next words, “and no matter what happens now, I’m sure Lafarga would be proud of us”

At that moment, as if everyone had suddenly agreed on doing the same, the Windriders joined hands. Dezel felt Edna’s small hand sustaining his as well, firm and confident, so Dezel let out a long sigh and stood straight, facing forward.

Zaveid was right. They had gone that far together, and that was what counted the most. Winning the competition would be fantastic of course, but it wasn’t the most important thing.

“And the biggest pile, with 1246 votes, belongs to…”

Dezel suppressed another gulp, feeling the beating of his own heart in his ears. Yes, they didn’t need to be named the best circus. They _knew_ that they were the best circus. The result of the competition didn’t matter. They didn’t need to win. They didn’t need…

“…THE WINDRIDERS!!”

A loud ovation resounded in the place when the winner was announced, but Dezel barely noticed it because just after Alisha named them he found himself trapped in a collective effusive hug. He heard Rose exhaling fast and trembling ‘ _We did it! We did it! We did it!_ ’ that indicated Dezel that the girl was crying, but she wasn’t the only one. All the Windriders were crying, laughing and shouting with emotion while keeping embracing each other, and for once Dezel decided to let all his emotions out without feeling any kind of shame because they deserved it.

They had made it. Finally, against all odds, the Windriders circus was back as the best circus, and damn if it that wasn’t a reason to cry out of pure happiness.

“Oh god, we did it!!”, Rose was jumping without stopping hugging Lailah and Edna, “we did it!! We did it!!”

“Yes, Rose, we did it, stop saying the same over and over again!!”, Edna snapped in exasperation while Lailah laughed, but tears of happiness were rolling down the blonde’s girl eyes non-stop.

“See?! See?! I told you that we were going to win!”, Sorey exclaimed with a wide smile, embracing Mikleo’s body tenderly while the boy sobbed with emotion against the crook of his boyfriend’s neck.

“Dezel”, Zaveid whispered with a ragged tone, grabbing the back of Dezel’s neck to make him lean his forehead against his own, “Dezel, we have won. We really have won”

Dezel let out a trembling laugh. In an impulse he grabbed Zaveid’s face and surprised him by kissing him passionately, the action causing a loud surprise ‘ _EEEEEEEHH?!_ ’ to resound in all the place.

“Careful, Zav, you will lose all your fans behaving like that!”

Dezel and Zaveid stopped kissing and laughed when suddenly Katie joined them with Liara in her arms, and she wasn’t the only one in approaching them: several people of the audience had stepped on the stage to congratulate them.

Of course, Zenrus and Eizen were among those people. The old man went with his two grandsons to tell them how proud he was of them while the blonde young man did the same with Edna, who didn’t waste any time in hugging her brother with force. Lailah remained at a prudent distance, not wanting to interrupts the two siblings, but to her surprise when finishing hugging Edna the blond young man approached Lailah as well. All the Windriders focused their attention on the pair, curious to see what Eizen was going to say.

“Sorry, I know that this is going to sound weird but I need to know something”

“Y-Yes?”, Lailah said after clearing her throat, trying to apparent calm, but her attempt of looking stoic failed when suddenly Eizen grabbed both of her hands and looked at her with intensity.

 “There are a lot of things that I don’t remember yet, but there is something that is crystal clear for me, and it’s that I belong to this circus. After watching all your shows, I know that not just Edna but also the Windriders are my family. And I also feel…”, Eizen smiled nervously at Lailah, who kept staring at him holding her breath, “…that my place is with you, Lailah. Somehow, I know that the fiancé you have mentioned in the show is me. It’s the only reason I can think off to explain what I’m feeling for you”

Lailah’s mouth fell completely opened when hearing Eizen’s sincere words. The rest of the Windriders and all the audience kept looking at the pair with expectation barely suppressed.

“So, even if I know that this petition may sound crazy, and even if I still don’t remember everything, please, could I become your fiancé once again? Because even if I lost my memories”, Eizen gulped and blushed intensely, “…I can assure you that my love for you remains intact”

Lailah bit her shaking trembling lip between her perfect teeth, and then after some incredibly tense seconds she nodded effusively while beginning to cry again.

“Of course you can”

Everyone began to applaud when Lailah threw herself into Eizen arms and kissed him intensely. Eizen was surprised at first but he immediately returned the kiss, enclosing her arms around her waist tightly

“Told you that tragic love stories are the best, Lailah-chan”, Zaveid commented happily while keeping applauding, together with the rest.  Rose shouted a loud ‘ _Wooho_!’ that caused everyone to laugh, including Eizen and Lailah.

Everyone was so animated celebrating the Windriders’ success that they didn’t remember that Hedalf was still there until Alisha spoke again with a firm voice.

“Lord Hedalf, do not leave yet, please”

Everyone shut up when hearing Alisha and turned to look at Hedalf, who had been about to abandon the stage together with Symonne making the most of the ruckus.

For a moment, it seemed as if the man was going to ignore Alisha’s words and abandon the big top, but at the last moment he turned around and faced the princess again. Again, Dezel didn’t need to see to guess what Hedalf’s expression was at that moment because he could perceive his furious aura from where he was, and damn if it didn’t feel good to know that the Windriders were the cause for it.

“Princess Alisha, since the winner has been established I think that my presence here is no longer necessary”

“Lord Hedalf, can I tell you why you have not won?”, Alisha continued speaking with calm, ignoring Hedalf’s words, “it is simple: because there is no love behind your shows. Yes, your animals may be impressive, and your performances impeccable, but there is not any love behind it. And since there is no love, neither there is equality. During my education as a princess, I have been taught to pay special attention to the details, and the same way that I have realized that _all_ the Windriders have light injuries that prove their training and dedication, in your case just your performers show several wounds while you do not have any. And there is more: the Windriders do not stand out alone. They do it always together and no one stands out more than the rest. But in your case, even if your performers are the ones who do the most dangerous job, it is you the only one whose name is mentioned. And Lord Hedalf, all that only proves…”, Alisha dedicated Hedalf a sad look, “…that your objective when performing is not to entertain people as it should be, but just to gain more personal glory and fame. For that reason you have lost. Next time when you do a show, please, have in consideration my words”

When Alisha finished talking a silence reined in the room. A silence that was broken after some seconds by Hedalf, when the man began to laugh with petulance.

“Oh, my dear Princess, I really wish you luck with your reign. You naivety and innocence are adorable, but soon you will learn that having certain people as enemies is not the best for your kingdom”

After saying that warning, Hedalf made a gesture towards Symonne and his men, as if indicating them to follow him outside, but again the man was stopped, this time for the Windriders.

“Hey, Lord Hedalf, don’t go so fast”, Zaveid approached Hedalf and settled a hand on the man’s shoulder, “we have not finished with you yet”

“Windriders, I do not recommend you to test more my patience”, Hedalf said with a studied calm tone that proved how close the man was to lose control, “you have won, as you wanted. We do not have any more matters to discuss”

“Oh, of course we have”, Dezel intervened crossing his arm, “indeed, we have pending matter from 5 years ago”

Before Hedalf could answer Dezel, Rose suddenly clapped her hands.

“Okay, everyone, listen to me!!”, the redhead faced the audience while Zaveid kept Hedalf in place, “remember that in our story the identity of the evil Lord wasn’t revealed? Well…”, with a theatrical movement Rose signaled at Hedalf, “ _this_ is the Lord we were talking about”

Everyone looked at Hedalf in disbelief, although the stupor in the man’s face while looking at Rose was bigger.

“Dear Rose ‘the Rose’, I think that the emotion of winning has caused you to say absurdit-”

“She isn’t saying any absurdities”, Sorey situated next to Rose, his expression completely serious, “this man ruined our village by hunting animals, experimenting with them and turning them into the monsters you have seen tonight in the show”

“And because of what he did”, Mikleo intervened, interrupting momentarily the horrified murmur that was beginning to spread among the people, “several people was injured, and some of them even died”, Mikleo glared at Hedalf, his normal calm eyes showing anger, “my mother was among those people. One of the monsters killed her when she was trying to protect me”

Alisha covered her mouth with her hands, her green eyes opened wide in horror. Several people mimicked her while looking at Hedalf with a mix of fear and anger. The man gulped subtly but when talking next his voice was as firm as confident as always.

“Alright, Windriders, I think you are carrying this joke about the evil Lord too far”, Hedalf fixed his eyes on Sorey and Mikleo, “and you, boys, may I ask what makes you say all those lies? Or are you saying that you have any way to prove that I am the responsible?”

“Yes, we have”

Everyone turned to look at Zenrus, the man who was talked.

“Lord Hedalf, you don’t remember me but I remember you”, the old man’s calm tone become tense, “because of you, I had to take Mikleo under my charge, and even if I couldn’t have been happier for having been able to see him grow together with Sorey, I never forgave you for Selene _and_ Michael’s death. So do you want evidences?”, Zenrus extracted from his pocket a paper, “here it is the evidence: an investigation that proves that the monsters who attacked Camlann were created with experiments, and if our hypothesis is correct with this…”, Zenrus shakes his papers to put emphasis to his words, “…we will be able to prove that your ‘animals’ present this same characteristics”

“And there is more”, Edna stepped in as well with a familiar small bottle in her hands, which caused Hedalf to turn suddenly pale, “we can also prove that this is the antidote to cure the animals”, Edna turned to look at Alisha, “princess, could we give this to one of Lord Hedalf’s animals to verify what we are saying?”

“Absolutely not!”, Hedalf said, adopting an outraged tone that masked a little the fear in his voice, “I am not going to allow that a couple of crazy people play with my poor animals…”

“Lord Hedalf, Zenrus is a recognized vet even in Ladylake”, Lailah’s sudden words caused Hedalf to shut up immediately, “so I think it is safe to assume that the antidote in question is completely inoffensive for your animals so Princess…”, Lailah inclined her head towards Alisha, “do we have your permission to test the antidote? If there is no reaction, we will admit that we were wrong about Lord Hedalf’s culpability and we will apologize properly”

“My dear Princes Alisha, you cannot allow these people to-”

“Alright, let’s do it”, Alisha said immediately, “Lord Hedalf, please, bring one of your animals here”

Lord Hedalf gulped.

“Princess Alisha, if I may have a word…”

“Lord Hedalf, bring one of your animals here immediately or I will have to order my knights to arrest you for disobeying my orders”

Alisha’s cutting words didn’t leave space to reply, Lord Hedalf gritted his teeth but eventually nodded and indicated his men to bring one of the animals, who resulted to be the biggest and more violent of all.

“Will it work?”, Dezel whispered Zaveid, “you have never tested it with such a big specimen”

“Well, there is just one way to prove it”, Zaveid said with smile. He made a gesture to Edna who approached him with a nod. They planned to do the same that they have done with that violent dodo two months ago, but since the animal was way bigger this time they asked Hedalf’s performers for help to keep the animal more or less under control, and surprisingly the men immediately agreed to help, which caused Hedalf to feel even more outraged if possible.

Zaveid made sure to catch the monster’s attention by keeping eye contact and moving his pendulums while Edna slowly approached him. Two minutes passed until Edna managed to get close enough to the monster to be able to pour the most of the liquid on the monster’s mouth.

During the first seconds, nothing occurred and the monster’s kept grunting furiously. However, gradually the monster’s bloodshot eyes recovered their original blank, and its violent attitude eventually disappeared and was replaced by fear.

“Easy, big boy”, Zaveid approached the animal mix of boar and rhino and tentatively settled a hand over the animal’s big head, “your suffering is finally over”

Everyone observed in awe Zaveid and Edna begin to pet the animal, which gradually calmed down until the point that he allowed Zenrus to examine it.

“As I was fearing, this boar has been operated to look the way he does”, Zenrus said with a sad voice, “someone cut his true legs and replaced them with ones of a horse, and the thorn that is in his forehead has been forcibly implanted. And if you allow me, Princess Alisha, I can prove it”

“It won’t be necessary”, Alisha said with a strained voice while people murmured in horror. The princess signaled at Lord Hedalf, who could barely keep his anger and frustration under control anymore, “arrest this man immediately”

“Wait, you can’t do this!”, two Ladylake knight’s approached Hedalf and grabbed him by his arms, “I didn’t know anything about this experiments. This…”, suddenly, Hedalf fixed his eyes on Symonne, who until then had been observing everything in silence, “…this has been Symonnes’s fault! She was the one in charge of hunting the animals and she tricked me! She was experimenting with them behind my back!”

Symonne’s usual imperturbable expression changed drastically into one of anguish when hearing Hedalf’s accusations. She opened her mouth, trying to find something to say, but she was unable. She just stared at Lord Hedalf while this one kept giving arguments to prove her culpability.

“Arrest her, I say!”, Hedalf kept demanding, “arrest her, not me! I haven’t done anything!”

“Lord Hedalf, please, accept your defeat with dignity”, Alisha interrupted him, “take him to the castle. I will talk to him thoroughly tomorrow in the morning”

“Wait a moment, princess”, Zaveid said then, “we would like to tell Lord Hedalf a couple of things so could you please give eyes some more minutes?”

Alisha blinked a little confused but nodded. Zaveid smiled at Alisha with gratitude before facing the people again.

“What we are going to say now, I’m afraid we will never be able to prove it”, Zaveid began with a voice that sounded a little frustrated, “but nevertheless, we want to let everyone know it because we are sure that our lives aren’t the only ones this bastard tried to destroy”

Suddenly, Katie’s voice was heard over the rest of the people.

“Do you…do you mean that the other tragedies that you have mentioned in your show…”

Zaveid smiled sadly but it was Rose the one who continued talking.

“Yeah, Katie. They are all true. The man who raised Deathly Rose and who was killed was Lafarga”

“And the Earth Jumper’s brother, who is besides The Queen of Fire’s fiancé, and who fell into a coma…”, Edna added, looking at her brother with barely contained emotion, “was Eizen”

“And the Wind Singer who ended blind because of the Evil Lord…”, without hesitation, Dezel retired once again his bangs from his eyes and faced the audience to show his bright grey eyes, “was me”

“And all of them”, Zaveid continued talking over the people’s talking, which had become louder after hearing the Windrider’s statements, “ended that way because of Hedalf. Five years ago, the incident that took Lafarga’s life and that provoked Eizen’s coma and Dezel’s blindness wasn’t an accident. It was something that Lord Hedalf prepared to destroy us and assure the popularity of his own circus”

“As Zaveid has said, we don’t have any evidence to prove this”, Dezel added, “but still, we thought that the 725 people that had voted for the Calamity Circus should at least know it”

After Zaveid and Dezel talked, people kept talking between them for several seconds, until suddenly the cruel laugh of Lord Hedalf invaded the room.

“Oh, Windriders, I feel sorry for you”, he said with smiling wolfishly, “after five years the only thing you can do is to keep blaming me for what happened. When are you going to get over your Master’s dea-?”

Hedalf shut up when suddenly Dezel approached him and took him by the front of his clothes. Dezel made sure to fix his grey eyes on Hedalf, and even if they had long lost their use there was a fire in them made Hedalf’s shiver in fear.

“Yes, we will never prove it. But you know what? Even if there is no evidence…”, Dezel smirked, “look at the people here. They know it. They know what a monster you are, and they will talk, letting even more people know. So, Lord Hedalf, you shouldn’t feel sorry for us. _We_ feel sorry for you”

Dezel heard Hedalf grit his teeth once again before finally releasing him.

“Well said”, Lailah praised with a proud smile when Dezel joined the Windriders again.

“Yeah, you are really hot in a badass mode”, Zaveid teased. Dezel chuckled and was about to insult his idiot boyfriend when at that moment Symonne surprised everyone by talking.

“About not having evidence about Lord Hedalf’s implications with the Windriders, I can provide them”

All the Windriders stared at the girl in disbelief while silence reigned in the big top once again. Dezel gulped. There had to be some kind of trap. Symonne and Hedalf had to be some kind of plan to…

“Symonne?”, but Hedalf’s voice indicated Dezel that the man was as stunned as the rest, “Symonne, what do you think you are…”

“Lord Hedalf ordered me to sabotage the tightrope to provoke the accident”, Symonne’s words provoked another horrified murmur, “he told me that he just planned to ruin the show. But he…”, Symonne gulped loudly before looking at the Windriders, her tone turning desperate, “…he didn’t tell me that he had sabotaged the mat. He didn’t tell me that he planned to kill Lafarga. The man was stupid, and way too innocent, and he got on my nerves because he was always smiling, but he…”, Symonne smoothed out the crinkled paper that was in her hands and looked at it as if it was her most precious thing in the world, “…he planned to include me in your family. He thought off several artistics alias for me even if I had just join you. If I had known that Lord Hedalf wanted to kill him I’d never…I’d never…”

Symonne stopped talking and began to cry silently, squeezing the old piece of paper that Lailah gave her five years ago against her chest with force.

Dezel felt a lump forming on his throat. He had been hating Symonne during all those years, but now he couldn’t do it anymore. Her desperate way of crying Lafarga’s death was really similar to the way he had been crying the first days after the man died. It was undeniably real.

“You bitch…”, Lord Hedalf’s spat, full of rage, “I knew I shouldn’t have taken you in with me. I should have let you rot in that whorehouse, you slu…!”

No one but the Windriders saw Zaveid’s punch coming until Hedalf was in the ground, bleeding from his nose and mouth.

 “That’s no way to talk to a lady”, Zaveid said simply, his comment causing several laughs in the audience that helped to lighten finally the mood inside the big top.

“Please, take Lord Hedalf to the castle dungeons”, Alisha ordered her knights before turning to Symonne, “and you, Symonne…”, Alisha’s tone turned apologetic, “…I’m going to ask you to accompany my knights as well. There are some things that I have to ask you”

The girl nodded, accepting her fate without protesting. She was about to follow the knights when Dezel called her name.

“Oi, Symonne”, the girl tensed when hearing Dezel and looked back, warily, “thank you”

Symonne’s eyes opened wide and a light red color stained her pale cheeks.

“I-I haven’t done it for you, fools. I-I just wanted to pay Lord Hedalf’s back for trying to put all the blame on me. T-That’s all!”

Without saying anything more Symonne followed the knights. However, despite her rude words just when she was going to step out of the big top she looked back for a brief moment, and blushed even more when the discovering that the Windriders were waving their hands towards her.

“Jeez, she is even more tsundere than you Edna-chan”, Zaveid joked.

“Tsk, idiot girl. She must have been suffering a lot all these years”, Edna simply snapped, clearly wanting to hide her concern with rudeness.

“Yes, poor thing”, Lailah turned to look at Alisha with concern, “will she go to jail too?”

“I am afraid that since she was also implied with the experiments and has confessed the sabotage of your show yes, she will. However, I will make sure to stand for her during the trial and to state clearly that everything was Lord Hedalf’s fault, so I am sure she will be free in a year at least”

“Hey, what if we ask her then to join the Windriders when she is out?”, Sorey looked confused when Mikleo chuckled, “what?”

“Seriously, you’re way too good”, Mikleo said, fondly kissing Sorey on the cheek, and he got even paler when Zenrus was looking at them with amusement, “umh…this…this is not…”

“Mikleo-chan, your gramps knows that you are together, you can relax”

Mikleo blushed with embarrassment when everyone began to laugh, but when Sorey kissed his cheek back he immediately smiled.

When Hedalf, Symonne and the Calamity Circus’ performers abandoned the stage, Alisha officially announced the end of the competition. The audience spent more minutes congratulating the Windriders again. Katie swore to have a couple of words with them for not having told her anything about Lord Hedalf before and Zaveid and Dezel had to get free from some women really interested in knowing details about their relationship. After that, the only ones who remained in the big top were the Windriders, Eizen, and Alisha.

“And speaking about joining the Windriders…”, Edna half-closed her eyes at her brother, “…I hope that you were meaning what you’ve said before about joining us again”

Eizen laughed and nodded, kissing his sister softly on her temple.

“Of course. Although I hope not having to share the caravan with Zaveid because he snores really loudl…”, Eizen’s eyes opened wide when realizing what he has said.

“Oh my, you are beginning to remember more things!”, Lailah exclaimed with enthusiasm, grabbing Eizen’s arm, “do you remember anything more?”

“Mmmm…well, I also remember something but I’m not sure if it’s real because there are some handcuffs involved and…”

“O-Okay, that has to be a dream”, Lailah interrupted him bright red and glared at Zaveid and Dezel when they obviously hid their laughter with suspicious coughs.

“Weeeell, and now that we are alone…”, Alisha blushed when Rose enclosed her arms around her neck, “when did you plan to tell me that you were a princess, _Alice_?”

Alisha chuckled nervously and offered Rose an apologetic smile.

“I’m sorry, I wanted to tell you but I was afraid that you changed your behavior around me when discovering who I really was”, Alisha bit her bottom lip and looked at Rose expectantly, “do you still like me even if I’m not Alice?”

Rose smiled brightly before leaning forward to kiss Alisha with decision, making the girl blush.

“Yeah, I like you a lot, your Highness”, Rose laughed when Alisha half-closed her eyes at her with a pouting expression, “oh, I’m going to get a lot of fun calling you honorifics from now on”

Everyone laughed when Alisha let out a resigned sigh.

“I feel you, princess”, Dezel said with a resigned tone, “I know what is to have an annoying boyfriend”

“Amazing, Dezel-chan. You wanted to say amazing”

It was Dezel’s turn to sigh with resignation when everyone laughed again.

“By the way”, Alisha said then, “I have not announced it publicly but as a reward for having won the competition you all (and Eizen as well, of course) are invited to spend the two days until the coronation in the castle”

“Really?!”, Rose’s eyes began to bright, “oooh, I hope that the dinner has free buffet!”

After spending some minutes asking Alisha about the castle the princess offered them to take them there and everyone immediately accepted.

They were about to abandon the big shop when suddenly Zaveid grabbed Dezel’s wrist, making him stop.

“Go first, people. I have to speak to Dezel for a second here”

Dezel frowned confused but surprisingly no one asked any questions, although he would swear to have heard Rose whisper a soft ‘good luck’ towards Zaveid.

When they were alone, Dezel faced Zaveid and was surprised when feeling the man completely in tension.

“What is this about?”, he forced a teasing tone, trying to hide his nervousness, “don’t tell me that you can’t wait until tonight to…”

Dezel shut up when Zaveid suddenly grabbed both of his hands tenderly.

“Dezel, I know that I’m two years late for this, since I told you that I’d do this when you were twenty”

Dezel felt his heart begin to beat hysterically inside his chest when hearing Zaveid’s tender tone.

No.

It couldn’t be that Zaveid was going to…

“I had planned to do this since the moment we were together again”

Dezel gulped, feeling his throat suddenly dry.

No.

It couldn’t be.

There had to be another explanation.

“But I had faith that we will win this competition, and that there wouldn’t be moment more perfect than this to ask you this”

Dezel felt Zaveid place something small in his hand, and his heart literally stopped for a moment.

He didn’t need to see to know that what Zaveid had just given him was a ring.

“Dezel ‘of the Unclouded Eyes’, formerly known as Dezel ‘of the Green Eyes’”, Zaveid settled a hand on his cheek and whispered the next words just against his mouth, “would you accept the charming Zaveid ‘of the Promise’, formerly known as Zaveid ‘the Ladykiller’, as your husband?”

Dezel opened and closed his mouth several times, trying to find the proper words to answer, but when just a surprised gasp escaped from his mouth he gave up and simply enclosed an arm around Zaveid’s neck to kiss him deeply, while grabbing the ring in his other hand with force.

“Can I take that as a yes?”

Zaveid’s ironic comment caused Dezel to exhale a laugh through the tears that were falling from his eyes again.

“Of course it’s a yes, you idiot”

Dezel kissed Zaveid again intensely while Zaveid enclosed his arms around his body. Dezel had never considered the possibility of marriage since that only time that Zaveid mentioned it, and therefore it surprised Dezel how damn happy he was feeling because of it.

“I love you, Dezel”

Dezel smiled and hugged Zaveid. He felt Zaveid’s desperate heartbeat against his own chest.

“I love you, Zaveid. And you can tell everyone that they can stop hiding because I can hear them trying to be quiet”

Zaveid burst out laughing before calling for the rest, who immediately entered the big top in a run.

“Congratulations!!!!”, Rose exclaimed jumping into Dezel arms and surrounding him with arms and legs, “please, please, let me choose the dress for the wedding”

“D-Dress?!”, Dezel choked out.

“Oh, so Zaveid hasn’t told you? He wants you to go dressed as a bride”

“You will be so lovely, Dezel-san! Alisha-san, you have to tell us which are the best bridal shops of Ladylake”

“Of course! When we arrive at the castle I will make you a list”

Dezel began to sweat when hearing the girls' comments, and that’s the moment when everyone burst out laughing.

“He has fallen for it!”, Sorey laughed while grabbing his own stomach, “oh, god, he has really fallen for it!”

“I-I haven’t!!”, Dezel protested bright red before turning towards Zaveid, “you idiot…”

“Hey, hey, hey, I have nothing to do with this!”, Zaveid defended himself.

“Yes, it was the girls' idea”, Mikleo accused with a smile while Eizen nodded, causing the girls to maturely stick out their tongues as an answer.

Dezel adjusted his hat to hide his blushing, but he was having difficulties in suppressing his own laughs.

When the initial euphoria settled down everyone finally began to happily follow Alisha towards the castle. Zaveid and Dezel remained in the last line, holding hands while walking.

“Hey, Dezel-chan…”, Dezel suppressed a smile when hearing Zaveid’s casual tone, “about the castle I was thinking…”

“…if the beds were more comfortable than the ones at the inn?”, Dezel smirked when feeling Zaveid’s surprised eyes on him, “you have to change your sexy sentences, Zaveid-chan. It’s beginning to be really easy to read them”

Zaveid arched an eyebrow with amusement.

“Are you insinuating that I’m a easy to read, Dezel-chan? Because in that case…”, Zaveid leans to whisper his next sentence just in Dezel’s ear, “…I’ll have to think in a way to surprise you tonight”

Dezel had to suppress a small whine when Zaveid teasingly bit his earlobe.

“Do you have something in mind?”, Dezel asked playfully.

Zaveid smirked seductively.

“You’ll have to wait until tonight to discover it”

Dezel bit his bottom lip, a familiar heat of anticipation curling in his stomach. He was about to accept Zaveid passionate kiss when…

“Please, Alice, tell me that that walls of the castle are thick”

“Yes, I’m tired and if those lovebirds don’t let me sleep I’ll kill them with my umbrella…although wait a minute, Rose, you are with the princess now, I’m sure you’ll be loud too!”

“I’m not. Alisha is the one who is loud”

“ _R-Rose_?!”

“Don’t worry, Alisha. I’m sure you aren’t louder than Mikleo”

“ _Sorey!_ I'm not as loud as you say!”

“Yes, Mikleo-san, you are, but it’s nothing to be ashamed of.

“Yes, Mikleo. Besides, Lailah is louder than you.

“E-Eizen?! H-Have you remembered something more already?”

“No, but you have just confirmed it to me with your reaction”

“ _EIZEN_!”

Zaveid burst out laughing when Dezel rubbed his temple with patience.

“I really love the Windriders”

Dezel exhaled a resigned sigh but he was smiling fondly when answering Zaveid’s statement.

“Yes. They really are the best”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you haven’t died because of fluffiness with that last part ^^U 
> 
> With this chapter, the main story is done, since the Windriders have defeated Hedalf and all the pairs are happily reunited :) However, I’ll update a short Epilogue in a week or so to finally conclude everything, so don’t forget to check it out when I update ^^
> 
> As always, thank you so much to the ones who have been commenting. I really appreciate your support <3 :)


	17. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And finally, the Epilogue :) Hope you enjoy it ^^  
> Warning: Brief SMUT scene. Hope you enjoy it, ZalelTribal ;)

**Three years (and 360 rounds) later**

Dezel’s head fell backwards while moaning when Zaveid incremented the speed of his movements, causing him to be even more close the edge if possible.

“Z-Zaveid…”, Dezel licked his lips and grabbed Zaveid’s hips with more force, “s-slow down a little or I will-”

Dezel groaned in delight again when Zaveid purposely clenched around him and began to ride him with even more vigor than before, causing the bed of the inn to creak in protest.

“What were you saying, Dezel-chan?”, Zaveid purred with a smirk, grabbing the back of Dezel’s neck to kiss him long and languid.

Dezel forgot what he was going to say and diverted his hands from Zaveid’s hips towards his firm ass to. He pounded up into the older Wind Seraph with more energy and the light change of angle caused Zaveid to grunt with arousal while tightening even more around Dezel’s member.

“Oh yeah. Just there”, Zaveid encouraged with a ragged tone. He straightened so that his chest was just in front of Dezel’s face and the younger Wind Seraph took the hint, diving forward to capture one of Zaveid’s nipples between his lips.

Zaveid grunted in pleasure when Dezel used his teeth and tongue over the perked bud, hardening it in no time. Dezel felt Zaveid’s powerful body shiver and deduced that the older Wind Seraph was at his limit, so he enclosed his hand around Zaveid’s hot and leaking member and gave him a tentative hard pump.

Dezel suppressed the urge to smile with satisfaction when Zaveid’s low grunts became louder and highly strained, indicating him the imminence of his orgasm, so he made sure to stroke Zaveid’s member fast while keeping thrusting into him with abandon.

It had been two years and half since the day Zaveid surprisingly asked him to take the lead in bed, during their wedding night. Until then that idea hadn’t even crossed Dezel’s mind, but despite his initial reticence he agreed to Zaveid’s petition, and he was glad to have done so. It was true that the change of roles hadn’t stopped Zaveid from keeping being the one in charge of the situation, even when he was the one the receiving part, but Dezel didn’t mind it in the least. He absolutely loved Zaveid’s dominant nature and he honestly thought that there was nothing sexier than Zaveid going wild over him while grunting his name in such an arousing deep voice.

“Dezel”, Zaveid reached back to settle his hand over Dezel’s, “Dezel, I’m going to come”

Dezel nodded shakily and re-captured Zaveid’s lips to kiss him eagerly.

“Me too”, he exhaled against Zaveid’s panting mouth, “inside?”

Dezel felt Zaveid smile against his mouth.

“Yeah”, Zaveid teased Dezel’s earlobe with his tongue and whispered his next sentence in his ear, “fill me up, Dezel-chan”

Zaveid’s dirty command did the trick and Dezel found himself exhaling Zaveid’s name while reaching his peak. Zaveid followed immediately after and even if his release dirtied both of their stomachs neither of them cared about that. They were busy interchanging a long open-mouthed kiss while slowly going down the high of such intense orgasms.

“So…”, Dezel asked breathlessly, “the round 360… has been… satisfactory enough for you?”,

Zaveid sighed tiredly before nodding with content.

“Yeah, Dezel-chan, it has definitely exceeded my expectations”, Zaveid kissed Dezel once again before stopping straddling his lap, “but now we should hurry of Rose-chan will kill us for making her wait to see her adorable girlfriend”

Dezel clicked his tongue while cleaning himself with the tissue Zaveid had handled him.

“If she tries to kill us I’ll sell you out. After all we made a stop in the inn because of you”

“How mean, Dezel-chan. it was _you_ the one you dragged me here to have your way with me”

“ _Excuse me_? Who is the one who has been tempting me the whole day? _You_ ”

“Well, it’s not my fault that you lose control when I casually comment how good it feels when my husband is inside me and…”

 “S-Shut up!”

Dezel threw at Zaveid a cushion of the bed but the man simply avoided him while laughing, and against his will Dezel found himself fighting not to laugh as well.

“By the way, before leaving Ladylake we shouldn’t forget go visit Symonne-chan”, Zaveid commented while beginning to get dressed, “after all she wrote you saying that she had begun to work here, right?”

Dezel nodded while standing up from the bed to get dressed as well.

“Yeah, but she insisted that she didn’t want us to visit her. You know that she is even shier than Edna and that visits make her nervous”

Zaveid chuckled.

“Well, sorry for her but we are going to visit her anyway”

Dezel smiled to himself. It was incredible how things had improved in just three years: after just one year Eizen had finally recover his memory, the Windriders Circus was now known in all the world, and they had more than fifty performers collaborating with them (Katie and her family included).

 Also, even if Symonne had got to jail together with Lord Hedalf, she got out in just four months, and the moment she was free Symonne had dedicated all her efforts in healing the animals that she had turned into monsters under Lord Hedalf’s orders. She had first worked in Camlann, where everything began, then she traveled to the rest of the cities that Lord Hedalf had ruined, and now she had established in Ladylake, where she had opened an animal clinic.

“I’m sure Sorey will try to convince her again to join us”

“Oh, and I’m sure that he will”, Zaveid said with conviction, “now she doesn’t have any excuse to say us no, and we need a good vet to take care of our private zoo”

Dezel laughed because it was true that now the quantity of the animals that they had was quite superior that the few animals that they were able to treat in the past.

“Okay, I’m ready”, Dezel announced after finishing tying his boots, “Zaveid, are you ready? We are really going to be late if we don’t move now”

“Yeah, just one more thing”

At that moment Dezel felt Zaveid’s powerful arms enclose him from behind. He was about to rush Zaveid but when the man kissed him with intensity he immediately melted into the kiss.

“I love you”

Dezel smiled. It was funny how his heart still missed a beat when Zaveid said that to him in such a sincere tone, and he was pretty sure that he’d still react that much no matter how many time would pass.

“I love you too”, Dezel said, grabbing Zaveid’s ringed hand between his, “and now let’s go before Rose kills us”

* * *

“Jeez, where are those two idiots?! I’m going to kill them if they don’t arrive soon!”

The rest of the Windriders sighed with patience and amusement when Rose began to walk hysterically to relieve some of her stress. Everyone with the exception of Zaveid and Dezel were waiting in front of the Ladylake castle, since Queen Alisha had invited them to go there. Officially, it was because she needed to discuss with the Windriders the possibility of doing a show in her 20 birthday party. Unofficially, it was an excuse to see the Windriders (and especially Rose) again without raising too many suspicions.

“Rose-san, I know that you are impatient to see Alice again but for now they aren’t late yet-”

Lailah exhaled a gasp while settling her hands over her belly and immediately everyone focused on her.

“Are you okay?”, Eizen asked with concern when seeing the pained grimace on Lailah’s face.

“Y-Yes, don’t worry. It seems that she has just woken up with extra energy”

Lailah smiled reassuringly at his husband, who smiled back and kissed her in the forehead. At the end it had taken Eizen almost a year to recover completely his memory. When that happened, he and Lailah didn’t wait any more time to finally marry. And then, just a year and half later, the pregnancy came a little out of surprise but neither of them regretted it in the least.

At that moment Lailah exclaimed another gasp when the baby kicked again, although with less force. Edna placed her hand over Lailah’s round stomach.

“Yes, she is moving like crazy”

As always, Edna’s tone remained unchanged but there was a tiny smile on her face.

“It seems that your niece is going to be a good fighter”, Sorey commented playfully, causing everyone to chuckle, Edna included.

“By the way”, Mikleo inquired then with a curious tone, “just before disappearing I heard Zaveid say something like ‘ _and finally 360_ ’. Do you know what could he mean?”

After several seconds of interchanging confused glances Rose huffed.

“No idea, but knowing Zaveid it was surely something sexual”

“And speaking of them…”, Eizen said then with a smile, signaling with his chin at the two men who were running rather breathlessly towards them.

“Sorry”, Dezel exhaled the moment he and Zaveid reached the group, “have we made it in time?”

Rose looked as her wristwatch and grunted reluctantly.

“Barely. Jeez, you could have waited to be in the castle to intimate”

“Sorry, Rose-chan”, Zaveid said enclosing his arm around the redhead’s shoulders while they walked, “I should have convinced Dezel-chan to wait…”

“What?! But it was you the one who…!”

“…but, besides”, Zaveid continued, ignoring Dezel’s outburst, “I remind you that the walls of the castle are really thin”

“Yeah. They are”, Edna said with a mortified tone, “hearing my brother say: ‘ _Oh, so the handcuffs weren’t a dream!_ ’ through the castle walls is something I’ll never forget”

Everyone began to laugh while Lailah and Eizen blushed with embarrassment.

“That is a story that I will tell your daughter when she grows up”, Zaveid commented mischievously.

“No, you won’t!!”, both future parents exclaimed at the same time.

“Don’t worry, Zaveid won’t tell her anything”, Dezel intervened with a teasing smile, “since otherwise you could tell her certain curious things that Zaveid-chan did in our wedding”

Zaveid half-closed his eyes at Dezel while everyone burst out laughing.

“Oh, you mean when Zaveid was so nervous that he forgot his own speech?”

“No, Rose: I think Dezel means when Zaveid made the ring fall into the ground when he offered it to Dezel”

“Oh, you are right Sorey. I remember that we spent like _ten whole minutes_ searching for the ring in the chapel”

“No, Meebo: Dezel is definitely talking about Zaveid beginning to cry when Dezel said the ‘I accept’”

“…Go to hell”

Dezel (and everyone) burst out laughing again when Zaveid muttered that in an unusual sulking tone while crossing his arms. Dezel approached Zaveid with a smile on his face and the rest began to walk a little forward to give them some privacy.

“Hey”, despite the man’s reluctance Dezel managed to force Zaveid’s head down to share a deep kiss, “I was just teasing you. It was the best wedding ever, and the happiest day of my life”

Zaveid’s sulking attitude immediately vanished when hearing Dezel’s words and was replaced by a happy smile.

“Yeah, it was, even if I wouldn’t have minded to see you in a bridal dress”

Dezel laughed and enclosed his arms around Zaveid’s neck.

“Well, if we are still together for our silver wedding I will think about it”

Zaveid smiled and leant his forehead against Dezel’s one.

“We _will_ , so you better be prepared for it”

Dezel laughed again and kissed Zaveid intensely before beginning to follow the rest, holding hands with his husband. Dezel knew that no one knows with certainty what the future holds, but somehow he had the absolute security that no matter how much time passed, not just Zaveid but also the Windriders would be there for him. And definitely, he couldn’t ask for a brighter future.

**The End**

The Windriders come back

GAlvin43v3r

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now, for real, ‘The Windriders come back’ comes to an end :) Hope you have enjoyed the story as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it and that you have liked the fluffy ending ;)
> 
> Thanks a lot to the ones who had been leaving kudos and comments. I really appreciate your support through the whole story <3 ^^


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